iy*Y  fa  .  ><f&i*j4 


THE  LIFE 


THOMAS   DICKSON 


&  Jfltemortal. 


I    e   \»     »  *»->■» 


>,.'  I   »5  * 


'l    o  >       • 


SAMUEL   C.  LOGAN,    D.  D 


f 


SCRANTON,    PA.,    1888. 


QT<?S 


Co 

£ojrf)ia  SDicft^on  €omp, 

<£lt3a&etf|  SDtcftgon  2£>ote&    Sfameg  $rmgfe  SDitftgmt, 

3fo£ejrf)  benjamin  SDid&on, 

3n&  t|ieir  Ctytoren, 

IS  THIS    IMPERFECT  MEMORIAL  OF  THEIR  VENERATED   FATHER 
AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED    BY 

€fte  3lutf>ot, 

WHO     THROUGH     MANY    YEARS     OF     PERSONAL    AND    PASTORAL 

ASSOCIATION  COUNTED  IT  ONE  OF  HIS  CHOICE  PRIVILEGES 

TO  BE   RECOGNIZED  AS  ONE  OF  THIS  WORTHY 

FATHER'S    PERSONAL   FRIENDS. 

THIS,    TOO, 

WITH     THE    SPECIAL    DESIRE    THAT    THE    COVENANT    BLESSING 

THAT   THOMAS   DICKSON   INHERITED   FROM    HIS 

PIOUS   ANCESTRY,    MAY, 

WITH    HIS     MANY    MANLY    AND    CHRISTIAN    VIRTUES,    DESCEND 

TO    THEM,    AND    TO    THEIR   CHILDREN,    TO    THE 

REMOTEST    GENERATION. 


MlGSSSO 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Memorial:  Reasons,  Objects,  and  Limitations  .        i 
I.  Nativity,  Parentage,  Migrations,  Early  Respon- 
sibilities          6 

II.  Education    and    Educators,     Literary    Tastes 

and  Pursuits 16 

III.  His    Organizing     Power,    Business    Enterprise, 

Honorable  Success 39 

IV.  His  Home  — Husband  —  Father  —  Social  Life  and 

Humor 62 

V.  Religious  Faith  and  its  Expression 75 

VI.  Declining  Health  —  Travels  —  Fades  Away  — 
Passes  through  the  Twilight  to  the  Morn- 
ing           91 

VII.  Sympathy  of  Brotherhood  —  Flowers  Wet  with 

Tears 108 

VIII.  "At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light" — Christian 
Burial  and  Christian  Tomb  —  Chaplets  for 

the  Worthy  Man's  Monument 116 

Testimonials  : 

I.  The  Dickson  Manufacturing  Company    ....     133 
II.  The  First  National  Bank  of  Scranton 135 

III.  The  Moosic  Powder  Company 136 

IV.  The  Crown  Point  Iron  Company 138 

V.  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company  ....    139 

VI.  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company 142 

Closing  Words 152 


WtMk 

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'£&2&J1iffl 

Cije  ^tentorial 


ITS    OBJECTS   AND    LIMITATIONS. 


I  HAVE  been  requested  to  write  a  memorial  of 
my  departed  friend,  Mr.  Thomas  Dickson,  which 
shall  be  especially  intended  for  the  use  of  his  family 
and  immediate  friends.  This  work  I  cheerfully  un- 
dertake, both  out  of  interest  in  the  living  and  of  love 
for  the  dead.  Mr.  Dickson's  long  identification  with 
the  great  schemes  of  industry  in  the  Lackawanna 
Valley,  and  his  high  character  as  a  citizen,  would 
seem  to  demand  that  his  life  should  not  be  permitted 
to  pass  away  from  the  memory  of  the  world  with- 
out some  monument  commemorative  of  his  work  and 
his  excellence.     When  future  historians  shall   seek 


2  Thomas  Dickson. 

to  trace  the  history  of  the  industries  and  record 
the  wonderful  development  of  society  in  the  grow- 
ing communities  of  north-eastern  Pennsylvania,  no 
doubt  some  permanent  general  record  will  show  the 
connection  of  Mr.  Dickson's  life  and  labors  with  this 
development ;  and  it  is  well  that  material  should  be 
provided  by  which  such  history  may  be  made  truthful 
and  just. 

It  is  perhaps  impossible  for  one  generation  fully 
to  apprehend  the  life,  or  appreciate  the  experiences, 
of  the  generation  which  precedes  it.  It  is  chiefly 
the  issues  of  an  active  life,  with  its  accomplished 
facts  which  touch  other  lives  in  this  world,  which  may 
be  expected  to  make  lasting  impressions  on  succeed- 
ing generations.  A  man's  contemporaries  are  the 
most  capable  and  appreciative  judges  of  his  personal 
character;  while  an  after-generation  may  perhaps  be 
the  better  judge  of  his  acts,  or  of  the  wisdom  of  his 
plans.  It  is  the  memory  of  the  man,  not  the 
register  of  his  deeds,  which  is  the  more  precious  to 
his  friends.  The  deeds  are  to  them  specially  valu- 
able only  in  so  far  as  they  perpetuate  the  picture 
of  the  man  himself.  It  is  the  husband,  the  father, 
and  friend,  who  should  be  embalmed  in  the  deserted 
household  and  circle  of  affection.  His  works  and 
activities  will  be  measured  by  them,  and  become 
especially  precious  only  in  so  far  as  they  bring  the 
man  himself  back  in  his  earnest  and  active  life  to 
their  hearts. 


The  Memorial.  3 

It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  saddest  thoughts  of  our 
lives  here,  that  we  not  only  pass  away  from  visible 
and  conscious  contact  with  the  world,  which  is  so 
much  to  us,  but  that  the  very  remembrance  of  us  fades 
away  from  the  world's  vision,  as  the  morning  cloud 
before  the  dawning  of  the  day.  The  remembrance 
of  many  of  our  acts  and  plans  of  life  may  remain  in 
the  world  after  we  leave  it,  especially  if  their  results 
continue  to  affect  other  lives.  Dim  and  imperfect 
shadows  of  ourselves,  in  conspicuous  positions,  may 
now  and  then  flash  across  the  path  of  other  seekers 
of  position  ;  we  shall  probably  be  lost  to  sight,  even 
before  the  foot-prints  we  have  made,  in  crossing  the 
stage  of  action,  have  become  untraceable.  Yet  it 
is  we  ourselves  who  desire  to  live  in  the  hearts  of 
all  to  whom  we  have  tried  to  be  helpful  and  true.  It 
is  what  we  are,  or  have  tried  to  be,  with  all  our  mis- 
takes and  blunders,  our  imperfections  and  weak- 
nesses, that  we  desire  should  remain  in  the  memory 
and  heart  of  those  we  leave  behind  us. 

There  are  perhaps  three  separate  forces  which, 
more  than  all  others,  combine  to  determine  the  lives 
of  such  men  as  Thomas  Dickson  in  this  world.  The 
influences  of  each  of  these  forces  must  be  considered 
in  any  true  biography.  The  first  of  these  is  that 
which  the  Christian  must  recognize  as  the  work  of 
God,  manifested  in  the  individual  characteristics  of 
the  soul.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  patent  of  per- 
sonal origin,  which  must  be  carried  with  us  through 


4  Thomas  Dickson. 

all  life.  There  are  gifts  and  endowments  which 
mark  our  personality  in  the  great  family  of  God  — 
characteristics  determined  directly  by  the  Creator  of 
the  individual.  The  second  force  is  that  of  one's 
parentage,  in  which  are  to  be  traced  the  mysterious 
power  of  blood  and  the  effective  forces  of  the  earthly 
origin.  The  third  of  these  forces  are  the  circum- 
stances of  life,  especially  in  its  formative  stages,  and 
in  the  junctures  which  bring  out  and  direct  its  latent 
forces.  There  is  a  double  relationship  of  the  indi- 
vidual, which  will  be  found  to  be  forceful  throughout 
life.  This  relationship  is  to  one's  experiences,  and 
circumstances;  by  which  human  action,  thought,  and 
feeling  are  so  frequently  determined.  But  above 
and  beyond  all  these  we  shall  discover  in  every  man 
who  makes  a  position  for  himself  a  distinct  person- 
ality—  a  native  manhood,  which  he  has  received 
directly  from  his  Maker.  In  this  memorial  it  is  pro- 
posed to  keep  in  view  and  preserve  in  their  pro- 
portions these  controlling  influences  as  they  are  seen 
to  crystallize  in  the  beauty,  harmony,  and  force  of  a 
useful  life. 

The  record  which  is  here  proposed  is  simply  that 
of  a  few  of  the  way-marks  of  an  active  and  useful  life 
of  three-score  years,  to  the  end  of  giving  the  man 
himself  his  true  place  in  the  memory  of  his  children. 
So  far  as  it  is  a  record  of  facts,  it  will  be  that  of  a 
few  of  the  incidents  and  struggles  in  a  life  which  was 
conspicuous  for  its  industry  and  its  peacefulness ;  for 


The  Memorial,  5 

its  success  and  sunshine ;  for  its  public  force  and  its 
private  virtues.  It  was  a  life  of  more  than  ordinary 
excellence  in  public  trusts;  of  more  than  common 
consistency  in  private  virtue,  in  all  its  relationships 
and  responsibilities.  Merely  a  condensed  statement 
of  facts,  it  must  be,  which  are  yet  well  known  to  his 
friends  and  associates. 

The  proper  record  of  a  busy  life,  of  even  half  a 
century,  can  only  be  fully  written  by  him  whose 
"book  of  remembrance"  is  closed  to  this  world. 

Much  less  may  we  attempt  to  trace  the  sweep  or 
measure  the  fruits  of  such  a  life,  with  their  con- 
tinually acting  power.  We  may  perpetuate  for  a 
time  the  way- marks  of  an  earthly  pilgrimage,  and 
note  some  of  the  "  foot-prints  left  on  the  sands  of 
time  "  before  they  are  forever  effaced,  and  so  gather 
lessons  for  our  life  and  blessing.  This  is  all  that  is 
here  proposed.  A  simple  household  memorial  of  a 
richly  endowed  and  faithful  father,  who  lived  for  his 
family,  under  an  acknowledged  stewardship  from 
God.  A  memorial  by  which,  though  dead,  he  shall 
continue  to  speak  to  those  that  remain  and  to  those 
yet  to  come.  A  family  tablet  it  is  to  be ;  set  up  in 
the  deserted  home,  to  perpetuate  benedictions  of  wis- 
dom and  love  to  all  the  households  through  which 
his  blood  shall  continue  to  flow.  That  tablet  reads 
as  follows  : 


(&$££* : 

NATIVITY,     PARENTAGE,    MIGRATION,    EARLY 
,       RESPONSIBILITIES. 


THOMAS  DICKSON  was  born  March  the  26th, 
a.  d.  eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-four,  at 
the  town  of  Leeds,  in  England,  during  a  temporary 
residence  of  his  parents  in  that  place.  The  family 
home  was  at  Lauder,  in  Berwickshire,  Scotland.  But 
for  a  time,  for  the  purpose  of  his  industry,  Mr. 
Dickson's  father  had  taken  his  family  to  Leeds, 
without  intention  of  permanent  residence,  and  a 
short  time  after  the  birth  of  Thomas  the  family  re- 
turned to  Lauder.  Hence  Thomas  always  reckoned 
himself  a  Scotchman,  both  geographically  and  by 
blood.  He  defended  his  birthright  by  asserting  that 
if  he  had  been  born  in  a  sty  it  would  not  make  him 


Nativity.  7 

a  pig;  or,  if  he  had  arrived  in  the  world  beside  a 
mill-pond,  and  had  learned  to  swim  before  he  mi- 
grated, it  could  hardly  make  him  a  goose.  He  was 
the  first-born  child  of  James  Dickson,  a  millwright 
of  Lauder,  and  of  Elizabeth  Linen,  who  was  a  native 
of  the  same  region.  He  was  a  scion  of  one  of  those 
Presbyterian  families  which  laid  the  broad  founda- 
tions of  the  Scottish  civilization  and  greatness.  He 
inherited  a  name  and  a  blood  which  is  traceable  back- 
ward through  many  generations,  and  which  comes 
to  the  surface  with  conspicuous  distinctness  in  the 
special  times  of  exigency  and  of  heroic  sacrifice  for 
the  right,  in  Scottish  history. 

The  grandfather  of  Thomas  Dickson,  whose  name 
he  inherited,  served  his  country  for  twenty  years  as 
a  member  of  the  92d  Regiment  of  Highlanders. 
This  man  married  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  was  a 
father  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  This  youthful  father 
enlisted  as  a  boy,  and  served  heroically  in  his  regi- 
ment throughout  the  stormy  times  of  the  Napoleonic 
conquests. 

For  twenty  years  he  marched,  fought,  and  suffered 
with  his  regiment  for  his  country.  He  went  through 
the  Peninsular  campaign,  when  the  French,  under 
Jerome  Bonaparte,  were  driven  out  of  Spain.  He 
stood  immovable  in  the  shock  of  that  last  charge  of 
the  French  at  Waterloo,  where  Scotch  persistency 
became  the  anchorage  of  British  glory.  This  Thomas 
Dickson  was  one  of  the  three  men  of  his  company 


8  Thomas  Dickson. 

who  were  found  standing,  full  armed,  when  that 
charge  ended  and  Napoleon's  sun  set  forever.  He 
received  from  the  British  Government  conspicuous 
medals  and  military  decorations  for  his  valor,  upon 
which  were  inscribed  the  names  of  fifty-two  battles 
in  which  he  so  valiantly  fought.  These  mementos 
of  heroic  services  were  inherited  by  his  son  James, 
who  was  only  sixteen  years  younger  than  himself, 
and  who  was  Thomas  Dickson's  father.  They  are 
still  in  the  possession  of  the  family,  an  heirloom  of 
which  any  family  may  be  proud. 

James  Dickson,  the  son  of  the  soldier,  and  the 
worthy  millwright  of  Lauder,  was  trained  by  his 
young  mother,  and  was  a  man  of  decided  religious 
convictions.  He,  with  his  excellent  wife,  early  iden- 
tified himself  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  of  which, 
during  the  latter  half  of  his  life,  he  was  an  efficient 
ruling  elder.  He  was  a  man  of  great  patience  and 
industry,  of  carefulness  and  simple  tastes.  When 
old  age  compelled  his  retirement  from  business,  he 
spent  much  of  his  time  in  writing  short  sermons, 
modeled  after  the  general  style  of  the  Scottish 
divines.  With  these  discourses  he  entertained  his 
friends  and  family,  and  made  them  useful  in  the  ab- 
sence of  his  pastor  in  the  social  meetings  of  the 
church. 

In  the  year  1832  James  Dickson  made  up  his 
mind  to  try  his  fortunes  in  the  New  World.  Breaking 
the   ties   which   bound   his    family   to    their    native 


Nativity.  g 

heather,  he  embarked,  in  company  with  his  wife's 
brother,  John  Linen,  who  was  a  successful  artist,  in  a 
sailing  vessel  from  the  port  of  Glasgow.  These 
men  sailed  from  Scotland  with  little  expectation  of 
ever  being  permitted  to  return.  They  took  with 
them  their  families  and  all  their  effects.  Dickson 
and  his  wife  were  blessed  with  six  healthy  children, 
of  whom  Thomas  was  the  oldest,  then  a  lad  of  nine 
years.  They  were  more  than  nine  weeks  tossing 
through  a  stormy  passage,  driven  by  adverse  winds. 
The  perils  and  discomforts  of  this  voyage  made  a 
permanent  impression  upon  the  mind  of  the  young 
lad  Thomas.  In  the  later  years  of  his  life  he  was 
accustomed  to  tell  the  story  of  the  family  migration 
with  a  pathos  which  touched  the  heart  and  drew  tears 
from  the  eyes  of  his  auditors.  For  more  than  two 
months  they  were  tossed,  and  suffered,  on  the  bois- 
terous ocean,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  they  an- 
chored in  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Here  the 
families  were  transferred  to  bateaux,  with  a  whole 
company  of  emigrants,  in  which  they  were  towed  up 
the  current  of  the  great  river  by  oxen  walking  on 
the  banks.  In  this  voyage  of  the  migration  the 
boy  Thomas  learned  a  lesson  of  patience,  persever- 
ance, and  endurance  under  difficulties,  which  fitted 
him  for  the  experiences  of  a  pioneer  life,  which  he 
was  so  early  to  encounter.  The  sorrows  of  this 
voyage  up  the  St.  Lawrence  were  greatiy  increased 
by  an  attack  upon  Thomas  of  the  cholera,  which  for 


io  Thomas  Dickson. 

the  first  time  appeared  in  America  in  that  summer 
of  1832. 

James  Dickson  stopped  with  his  family  at  Toronto, 
and  attempted  to  follow  the  business  of  his  trade. 
But  the  country  was  so  new,  the  settlements  so 
sparse,  and  the  machinery  so  rude  and  imperfect, 
that  there  was  little  prospect  of  either  brilliant  or 
permanent  success.  He  struggled  hard  to  get  a 
foot-hold,  but  grew  discouraged  with  the  prospect; 
and  at  length,  in  1834,  followed  his  friend  and  rela- 
tive, George  Linen,  who  had  migrated  the  year  fol- 
lowing that  of  his  brother,  to  Dundaff,  which  was  a 
new  settlement  at  the  foot  of  Elk  Mountain,  in  north- 
eastern Pennsylvania.  Here  Mr.  Dickson  placed  his 
family  on  a  farm,  where  the  two  friends  very  soon 
demonstrated  that  the  artist  and  millwright  were  but 
poor  material  to  convert  into  farmers.  Early  dis- 
covering that  he  could  not  hope  to  be  a  successful 
farmer,  Mr.  Dickson  abruptly  left  the  whole  farm 
venture  in  the  care  of  his  young  son  Thomas  and  his 
mother,  while  he  ventured  to  New- York  in  search 
for  employment  as  a  mechanic.  Here  he  found  work 
which  speedily  developed  into  a  hopeful  opening, 
by  reason  of  the  unusual  demand  for  the  work  of 
mechanics  which  was  consequent  upon  the  great  fire 
of  1835.  Here  James  Dickson  spent  two  winters, 
with  their  intervening  summer,  in  successful  work  ; 
at  the  end  of  which  time  he  returned  to  Dundaff,  with 
the  intention  of  taking  his  family  with  him  to  settle 


Nativity.  1 1 

in  the  city.  But  while  he  tarried  with  his  family  in 
the  visitation  of  his  old  friends  at  Carbondale,  he 
became  acquainted  with  the  president  and  other  offi- 
cers of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company. 

This  company  had  been  organized  in  1824 — the 
year  of  Thomas  Dickson's  birth  —  in  the  city  of  New- 
York.  It  was  organized  especially  for  the  mining 
and  transportation  of  coal,  with  its  offices  in  the  city 
of  New- York,  while  the  point  of  its  operations  was 
at  and  about  Carbondale,  in  the  Lackawanna  Valley. 
Up  to  the  time  of  Mr.  Dickson's  acquaintance  with  it, 
all  the  machinery  of  this  company,  except  that  which 
lifted  cars  up  the  planes  upon  a  horse-railway,  had 
been  operated  by  water-power,  and  it  labored  under 
all  the  difficulties  of  the  undeveloped  coal  enterprise 
of  that  day. 

The  attention  of  the  president  of  this  company 
was  called  to  Mr.  Dickson,  because  of  his  being  a 
skilled  millwright,  with  his  family  already  in  the  field 
of  operations.  As  soon  as  his  skill  was  known, 
Mr.  Dickson  was  offered  the  position  of  mechanic 
among  the  water-wheels  and  in  the  rude  shops 
of  the  company.  Hence  in  the  spring  of  1836  he 
accepted  employment  in  this  capacity,  and  moved 
his  family  from  Dundaff  to  Carbondale.  Here  he 
entered  permanently  the  service  of  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal  Company,  and  by  his  skill  and  sound 
judgment  he  soon  won  the  position  of  master  me- 
chanic.   This  position  he  held  with  honor,  and  pros- 


12  Thomas  Dickson. 

ecuted  its  enlarging  work  with  decided  success. 
And  even  when  old  age  had  set  him  aside  from 
active  duty,  he  was  retained  in  his  honorable  position 
until  the  year  of  his  death,  in  1880.  In  this  worthy 
position,  James  Dickson  was  permitted  to  support 
his  family  and  educate  his  successful  sons  and  daugh- 
ters. Throughout  his  life  he  illustrated,  in  the  com- 
munity, the  excellencies  of  a  consistent  Christian 
character. 

James  Dickson's  wife,  Elizabeth  Linen,  was  the 
master-spirit  and  formative  power  in  the  household. 
She  was  a  woman  of  more  than  ordinary  natural 
endowments,  which  prepared  her  for  every  exigency. 
The  family  after  their  migration  were  subjected  to 
great  trials  and  reduced  to  a  very  narrow  margin  in 
daily  life.  But  Mrs.  Dickson,  burdened  with  the 
care  of  her  six  small  children,  never  lost  heart,  hope, 
or  patience.  She  took  charge  of  the  whole  house- 
hold, after  the  style  of  the  "guid  Scotch  wife."  Her 
husband  regularly  intrusted  her  with  his  wages,  and 
she  applied  them  with  great  wisdom  for  the  support 
of  the  family.  James  Dickson  fully  appreciated  his 
wife,  and  was  as  one  of  his  own  children  in  all  mat- 
ters of  the  household.  His  wife  purchased  for  him 
his  clothes,  as  she  did  that  of  her  children,  and 
directed  his  holidays'  expenditures,  what  few  he  had. 
She,  by  her  genius  and  spirit,  ordered  the  household 
so  that  it  was  full  of  love  and  cheerfulness,  with  all 
its  burdens  and  anxieties.     With  persevering  econ- 


Nativity.  1 3 

omy  and  endless  labor,  she  clothed  her  family,  so 
that  her  children  might  lift  up  their  heads  with  the 
best  of  the  community.  Crowded  in  the  little  cabin, 
she  might  have  been  seen,  almost  any  night,  with  an 
umbrella  spread  over  her  to  hide  the  light  from  the 
eyes  of  her  sleeping  husband  and  children,  while  she 
cut  and  patched  and  altered  the  garments  of  her 
children,  asleep  all  about  her.  To  the  best  natural 
gifts  this  woman  added  the  most  lovely  Christian 
spirit,  and  was  possessed  of  the  best  education  of  the 
times.  She  lived  to  see  her  sons  and  daughters 
more  than  ordinarily  successful  in  life,  and  died 
leaving  a  whole  community  to  mourn  her  departure 
and  to  remember  her  virtues. 

During  the  hard  winter  which  succeeded  James 
Dickson's  departure  to  New- York  from  Dundaff,  the 
farm  he  had  rented  was  left,  as  has  been  said,  in  the 
care  of  Thomas  and  his  mother;  and  during  this 
winter  Thomas  developed  many  characteristics  which 
followed  him  through  life — characteristics  which  ena- 
bled him  to  make  friends  of  all  classes  of  men.  He 
used,  after  he  had  reached  his  great  success  in  busi- 
ness, to  tell  of  his  schemes  and  trials  when  snowed 
in  among  the  hills  of  Dundaff  with  his  beloved 
mother  and  her  family  of  bairns,  as  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  call  them,  with  small  supplies  and  none  to 
help  them.  With  the  vivacity  and  sparkle  that 
always  filled  his  auditors  with  laughter,  he  gave 
descriptions  and  accounts  of  his  experiences  and  suf- 


14  Thomas  Dickson. 

ferings,  which  made,  as  he  said,  the  winter  full  twelve 
months  long.  His  greatest  difficulty  was  to  find 
suitable  wood  in  that  dense  forest  to  keep  the  cabin 
warm  enough  to  avoid  freezing.  The  snow  had  a 
power  of  penetration  which,  he  said,  would  hunt  out 
the  baby  through  every  crack.  He  said  that  he  and 
his  mother  at  least  "were  kept  in  a  sweat  all  winter." 
The  pictures  he  drew  of  himself  clothed  in  the 
garments  which  his  father  had  left  behind  him,  and 
which  his  mother  persuaded  him  he  would  speedily 
fill  with  a  full-rounded  manhood,  were  unique.  With 
pantaloons  drawn  up  to  his  armpits,  and  rolled  up 
at  the  bottom  to  keep  them  from  entangling  his  feet, 
and  a  coat  whose  skirts  were  more  dangerous  than 
the  legs  of  the  pants  he  wore,  he  toiled  day  after  day, 
with  a  yoke  of  oxen  to  snake  the  logs  from  the  forest 
for  fire- wood.  With  all  his  industry  and  persever- 
ance he  found  that  his  work  was  only  fairly  begun 
when  he  had  brought  the  logs  to  the  cabin  door. 
He  was  consequently  led  to  conclude  that  a  success- 
ful worker  must  be  one  who  can  set  others  to  work, 
and  legitimately  use  their  more  abundance  of  power 
to  supplement  his  own  energies.  He  concluded  that 
he  had  better  use  his  wits  as  well  as  his  muscle,  or 
else  he  might  awake  some  morning  to  find  his  pre- 
cious charge  frozen  stiff.  Hence  he  went  to  an  old 
merchant  of  Dundaff,  Charles  Welles  by  name,  and 
told  the  story  of  his  trials,  his  perplexities  and  fail- 
ures, and  asked  for  a  loan  of  a  few  dollars  to  help 


Nativity.  1 5 

him  "out  of  the  woods."  The  old  merchant  became 
interested  in  the  spirit  and  story  of  the  boy,  and  fur- 
nished him  with  excellent  advice  as  well  as  the  funds 
to  help  him  secure  wood-choppers  to  prepare  the 
wood  for  the  family's  use.  Thomas,  instead  of 
attempting  to  hire  wood-choppers,  spent  all  his 
money  for  the  best  Scotch  whisky,  and  invited  the 
whole  neighborhood  to  a  chopping-bee.  The  neigh- 
bors gathered  from  far  and  near,  and  in  one  day 
this  boy  of  less  than  twelve  years  solved  the  almost 
hopeless  problem,  and  provided  the  household  with 
an  excellent  supply  of  winter  fuel.  This,  his  first 
venture  in  business,  gave  him  a  key  to  the  steward- 
ship of  a  successful  business  life.  To  bind  his  fel- 
lows to  himself  and  to  his  schemes  of  industry,  by 
genial  fellowship  and  good  cheer,  became  the  plan 
of  his  working ;  and  no  man  ever  carried  out  greater 
plans  of  industry  with  more  real  satisfaction  to  those 
who  became  identified  with  him,  or  were  employed 
as  his  willing  helpers. 


II. 


EDUCATION    AND    EDUCATORS LITERARY    TASTES 

AND    PURSUITS. 


OF  the  education  of  Thomas  Dickson,  technically 
speaking,  very  little  can  be  said.  He  was 
not  what  we  should  be  willing  to  call  "a  self-made 
man,"  as  that  phrase  is  usually  employed.  He  was 
too  good  and  great  to  be  placed  for  a  moment  in 
that  class  of  men  whose  usual  boast  is  that  they  are 
"  self-made."  We  should  much  prefer  to  call  him  a 
home-made  man  of  the  very  best  style.  He  was 
the  product  of  a  worthy  Christian  household  and  of 
a  parental  training  of  the  best  order. 

It  would  be  very  difficult  for  his  children,  and  cer- 
tainly impossible  for  his  grandchildren,  to  reach  any 
adequate   conception   of  the   conditions  of  the  pio- 


Education  and  Educators.  17 

neer  life  to  which  his  childhood  and  youth  were  sub- 
jected. It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for 
this  generation  to  form  a  true  measurement  of  what 
are  generally  called  the  educational  privileges  under 
which  he  pressed  his  way  to  manhood  and  marked 
out  the  path  of  his  life. 

The  pioneers  who  hewed  down  the  forests,  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  a  country  that  in  a  single  genera- 
tion has  leaped  to  the  front  in  the  march  of  a  world's 
civilization,  almost  without  exception,  were  believers 
in  the  power  and  necessity  of  Christian  education,  as 
the  efficient  factor  of  a  free  people.  Their  first 
work,  after  the  establishing  of  their  own  rude  homes 
in  the  wilderness,  was  the  building  of  the  school- 
house  and  the  house  of  worship.  But  the  means  at 
their  command  and  the  conveniences  within  their 
reach  were  so  limited,  that  it  was  generally  at  the 
sacrifice  of  the  educational  interests  of  the  first  gen- 
eration that  respectable  schools  were  established  in 
any  community. 

Teachers  who  were  really  qualified  to  conduct  a 
school  were  very  few,  and  hard  to  obtain ;  while  the 
compensation  of  such  teachers  was  so  meager  that 
they  were  compelled  to  spend  the  summer  months  in 
other  business,  so  as  to  gather  a  sufficient  living  to 
enable  them  to  teach  through  the  winter.  The 
school-teachers  of  the  first  third  of  the  present  cent- 
ury, especially  outside  of  New  England,  were  mostly 
Protestant  Irishmen.      They  were  men  whose  chief 


1 8  Thomas  Dickson. 

ideas  of  training  young  minds  revolved  about  a 
narrow  theory  of  strict  discipline,  and  the  various 
relations  of  "  superiors,  inferiors,  and  equals,"  as 
suggested  by  the  Heidelberg  or  Westminster  Cate- 
chisms. The  common  school  was  a  little  kingdom, 
of  which  the  teacher  was  the  king;  and  his  chief 
work  was  that  of  government.  Unless  the  boys 
and  girls  were  taken  up  by  the  pastor,  as  a  work  of 
love  and  Christian  duty,  their  education  must  be 
limited  to  the  merest  rudiments  of  what  was  called 
an  English  education.  The  books  and  appliances 
for  the  convenience  of  teachers  were  as  angular  and 
inferior,  in  general,  as  were  the  teachers  themselves. 
A  sketch  of  the  school  in  actual  session  will,  per- 
haps, give  us  a  clearer  estimate  of  the  value  of 
school  privileges,  as  they  were  enjoyed  by  the  boys 
of  the  generation  to  which  Mr.  Dickson  belonged. 
Here  it  is.  Suppose  a  log-cabin  twenty  by  thirty 
feet,  with  one  log  cut  out  for  the  greater  part  of 
its  length,  on  the  side  opposite  to  the  door.  The 
vacancy  thus  made  was  closed  to  the  weather,  first 
by  greased  paper,  and  then,  as  the  arts  of  life 
advanced,  by  single  panes  of  glass,  set  up  side  by 
side,  to  admit  the  light.  This  was  the  window  of 
the  school-house.  A  long  board,  resting  upon  pins 
driven  into  the  wall  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees, 
formed  a  writing-desk;  and  a  slab,  perched  upon 
legs  three  feet  long,  which  forbade  the  possibility  of 
the  urchins'  feet  touching  the  floor,  constituted  the 


Education  and  Educators.  19 

preparations  for  learning  to  write.     Upon  this  long 
bench  the   chickens   of  the   community,  great   and 
small,  were   perched,  and  learned  to  use  the  quill  of 
the  goose.     The  work  of  the  first  winter  was  gener- 
ally confined  to  the  mere  scratching  of  what  were 
called   "pot-hooks,"  or  imitations  of  the  curves  of 
the   iron  hooks  hanging  upon  the  cranes  of  their 
mothers'  kitchens.     A  box  stove,  with  an  open  oven, 
which   was   chiefly   convenient   for    the  roasting  of 
apples,  occupied  the  center  of  the  room.      This  luxu- 
rious heater  was  usually  filled  with  green  wood,  from 
the  forest,  that  could  only  with  persistent  coaxing  be 
induced  to  burn,  and  had  its  smoke-pipe  running  out 
through  the  roof  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  dependent 
upon    the   wind   to   .determine   whether   the   smoke 
should   pass   up   or   down.      An    elevated   desk,   or 
throne,  for  the  use  of  the  teacher,  was  placed  at  the 
end  of  the  room,  and  slabs  on  short  legs  filled  the 
remainder  of  the  floor.      Here  sat  the  pupils  in  long 
rows,  graded  according  to  degrees  of  progress,  social 
status,  or  length  of  limbs  ;    but  generally  all  seated 
so  high  as  to  be  allowed  full  room  for  the  swinging 
of  their  feet,  by  which  they  kept  time  with  their  puz- 
zled thoughts,  and  rendered  tolerable,  by  constant 
exercise,  the  sedentary  life  to  which  they  were  com- 
pelled.    The  first  and  second  rows  of  these  urchins 
flourish    in  their  hands,  or  hold  before   their  faces, 
shingles  which  are  carved  into  paddles  of  various 
patterns,  on  one  side  of  which  are  the  letters  of  the 


20  Thomas  Dickson. 

alphabet,  and  the  combination  of  these  letters  in 
square  onion-beds  of  "a-b  abs" ;  on  the  other  the 
mysteries  of  mathematics  which  are  crystallized  in 
the  multiplication-table,  and  in  the  various  tables  of 
measure,  both  "liquid"  and  "dry."  These  were 
their  books,  or  literary  works,  containing  the  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge,  and  were  usually  provided  by 
the  pen  of  the  teacher.  Next  to  these  sat  the  row 
of  those  in  the  second  class,  holding  well-thumbed 
spelling-books,  which  were  the  contribution  to  the 
world's  life  and  advancement  made  by  Dillworth 
and  Webster.  Next  to  these  the  reading-classes, 
who  are  poring  over  appointed  tasks  in  the  "  Eng- 
lish Reader,"  which  is  a  book  made  up  of  extracts 
from  the  works  of  the  English  masters  in  prose  and 
poetry.  Along  with  these  are  reading-classes  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  These  constitute  all 
the  reading-books  known  to  the  community  which 
may  be  useful  to  the  school.  "Pike's  Arithmetic,"  with 
its  teaching  all  shackled  with  "pounds,  shillings,  and 
pence,"  with  the  treatise  on  prosody  which  they 
called  "grammar,"  which  was  relegated  to  the  ap- 
pendix of  the  spelling-book,  constitute  the  sum  of 
the  helps  for  the  highest  education  proposed. 

Such  was  the  school  of  1830  among  the  mount- 
ains and  in  the  valley  about  Carbondale.  A  higher 
education  than  could  be  afforded  by  such  a  school 
could  be  found  only  at  great  expense  or  else  through 
the  self-denial  of   ministers   and   missionaries   who 


Education  and  Educators.  21 

selected  special  pupils  for  private  and  classic  tuition, 
and  at  their  own  cost  usually  prepared  them  for 
college. 

When  the  Dickson  family  were  safely  housed  in 
their  home  of  two  rooms  and  a  kitchen  in  Carbon- 
dale,  and  the  father  had  found  steady  work  among 
the  water-wheels  and  lifting-sweeps  of  the  Delaware 
and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  it  was  at  once  decided 
that  Thomas  should  take  up  the  broken  threads  of 
his  education,  which  hitherto  had  been  running  en- 
tirely between  himself  and  his  beloved  mother.  She 
was  more  proud  of  her  boy  and  of  his  capabilities 
than  she  was  of  his  advancement  in  book  knowledge. 
She  had  done  the  best  she  could  for  him  in  her 
teaching,  but  she  earnestly  coveted  for  him  a  gener- 
ous education.  It  was  therefore  determined  to  place 
him  in  the  village  school.  It  was  the  best  the 
town  could  afford  for  the  boys.  It  was  taught  by 
an  Irishman  by  the  name  of  John  Welch.  A  regu- 
lar knight  of  the  rod  he  was,  perpetually  burdened 
with  the  cares  of  government,  in  his  little  common- 
wealth. 

There  were  two  characteristics  of  the  boy  Thomas 
which  were  inwoven  with  the  texture  of  his  being  — 
characteristics  which  could  be  neither  eliminated  nor 
hidden  throughout  a  long  life.  The  first  of  these 
was  an  innate  love  of  fun,  absolutely  irrepressible; 
the  other  a  love  of  justice,  honesty,  and  fair  dealing 
under   all  circumstances.     These  peculiarities  were 


22  Thomas  Dickson, 

as  strong  in  the  child  as  they  ever  were  in  the  man, 
and  they  carried  a  beautiful  array  of  virtues  along 
with  them  in  all  his  life.  For  the  enjoyment  of  his 
fun  he  was  ready  to  turn  the  house  upside  down  at 
any  time.  He  was  always  ready  to  get  his  fellows 
into  all  kinds  of  difficulties ;  but  then  he  stepped  up 
like  a  man,  and  either  laughed  the  government  out 
of  its  judicial  severity,  or  took  the  punishment  due  for 
transgression  for  the  whole  lot,  if  need  required, 
without  flinching.  By  his  own  confession  he  usually 
paid  the  score  of  all  the  poor  sinners  whom  he 
had  inveigled  into  transgression.  Thomas  asserted 
through  after  life,  in  his  joking  way,  that  he  had 
taken  the  chastisement  for  all  his  brothers  and  sisters 
as  a  household  duty,  and  had  thus  been  the  means 
of  their  best  education.  But  all  dishonest  shirking 
and  falsehood  he  abhorred.  He  was  neither  guilty 
of  it  himself  nor  would  he  ever  suffer  it  in  others,  if 
he  could  help  it.  These  two  peculiarities  were  the 
means  of  cutting  short  his  education  in  the  Irish 
academy  of  the  executive  Welch.  He  had  been  in 
school  but  a  few  weeks,  exploring  the  mysteries  of 
"  Pike's  Arithmetic,"  when  he  came  into  collision  most 
unexpectedly  with  the  powers  that  were.  It  was 
after  this  manner.  The  pupils  were  gathered  about 
the  stove,  with  its  enormous  burden  of  green  wood, 
each  trying  to  extract  enough  of  heat  to  satisfy  his 
toes,  or  at  least  melt  the  snow  from  his  shoes,  when 
a  boy  at  the  end  of  the  row,  led  by  the  spirit  of  mis- 


Education  and  Educators.  23 

chief  which  was  well  known  to  dwell  in  the  Scotch 
lad,  brought  his  weight  suddenly  against  this  row  of 
small  "bricks,"  just  for  the  fun  of  seeing  them  tumble 
over  each  other,  and  so  demonstrate  the  law  of  the 
resistance  of  solids  and  the  accurate  relations  of 
force  and  momentum. 

Thomas  was  immediately  called  to  the  teacher's 
bar  of  justice  and  charged  with  this  crime,  of  which 
he  was  himself  one  of  the  victims.  He  was  ordered 
to  hold  out  his  hand  for  punishment  for  this  dis- 
orderly conduct.  Thomas  denied  the  charge  with  a 
hot  indignation,  which  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
fact  that  the  real  culprit  was  a  favorite  of  the  teacher, 
and  one  who,  by  his  silence,  proposed  to  allow  the 
innocent  to  suffer.  He  refused  to  submit  to  the  un- 
just discipline,  and  immediately  showed  the  teacher 
a  clean  pair  of  heels.  Around  and  around  the  stove 
and  over  the  benches  ran  the  fugitive  from  justice, 
with  the  wand  of  punishment  flourishing  behind  him 
in  the  hand  of  the  irate  master.  Thomas  discovered 
that  the  tongs  have  entire  advantage  over  the  com- 
passes by  their  length  of  limb,  and  hence  that  the 
master  was  gaining  upon  the  culprit  as  the  race  con- 
tinued. But  as  he  passed  the  teacher's  desk  he 
snatched  up  his  inkstand  and  hurled  it  with  precision, 
and  telling  force,  at  the  teacher's  head,  and  then  shot 
out  of  the  school-house  door.  Thus  he  graduated, 
or  at  least  completed  the  assigned  curriculum  of  his 
school  education. 


24  Thomas  Dickson, 

He  went  home  immediately  and  reported  the 
whole  state  of  the  case  to  his  father,  who  advised 
him  to  return  and  apologize  for  his  rebellion  to  his 
teacher,  and  take  his  punishment  like  a  man.  This 
he  refused  absolutely  to  do,  upon  the  assertion  that 
it  was  a  demand  to  submit  to  an  injustice,  which  he 
never  could  consent  to  endure.  His  father  then 
hastily  told  him  if  he  could  not  reconcile  himself  to 
his  teacher  he  must  go  to  work.  He  accepted  the 
alternative  with  unexpected  promptness,  and  set  out 
to  find  a  job,  at  once  determined  to  start  upon  the 
highway  of  life  for  himself.  He  applied  to  one 
George  A.  Whiting  for  a  position,  expressing  his 
willingness  to  try  his  hand  at  anything.  Mr.  Whiting 
was  connected  with  the  coal-works  of  the  Delaware 
and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  and  at  once  became 
interested  in  the  spirit  and  energy  of  the  boy.  He 
gave  him  the  job  of  driving  the  very  large  mule 
harnessed  at  the  sweep,  and  used  for  lifting  coal  out 
of  the  mine.  The  superintendent  furnished  him  with 
this  large,  headstrong  beast,  and  told  him  to  go  and 
try  his  hand.  The  little  fellow  mounted  the  animal's 
back  to  ride  him  down  to  the  sweep,  where  his  daily 
task  was  appointed,  but  the  mule  rebelled ;  and  after 
various  gyrations  going  about  half-way  to  the  sweep, 
having,  perhaps,  carefully  considered  the  weight  of 
the  governing  power  having  hold  of  the  reins,  he 
turned  himself  about  and  brought  the  boy  back  to 
the  store;    much  to  his   own   chagrin,  and  to   the 


Education  and  Educators,  25 

amusement  of  the  men  and  boys  who  had  gathered 
to  see  the  contest  at  the  entrance  of  the  young  man 
on  the  business  of  life.  But  by  persistence  and  pluck 
Thomas  succeeded  in  mastering  the  unruly  force 
which  was  put  under  his  charge,  and  brought  his 
living  engine  to  a  faithful  duty  at  the  mines.  Here 
he  began  his  business  life,  which  was  ultimately  to 
win  for  him  his  high  position. 

From  the  time  young  Dickson  so  rashly  left  the 
school  his  education  was  chiefly  in  his  own  hands. 
It  was  in  no  sense  the  result  of  his  want  of  interest 
in  books,  or  of  an  appreciation  of  the  best  school 
education,  that  he  had  turned  his  back  upon  the 
village  school.  Doubtless  a  respectable  compromise 
could  have  been  secured  with  this  teacher  who  had 
outraged  his  sense  of  justice,  and  the  popularity  of 
the  lad  in  the  community  would  have  given  him  the 
best  position  in  the  school  itself.  It  was  rather  due 
to  the  awakening  of  the  young  manhood  in  him, 
which  suggested  independent  action  for  his  own  self- 
support. 

From  childhood  he  had  manifested  a  taste  for 
study  and  a  longing  for  books.  He  had  read  every- 
thing his  parents  possessed ;  but  the  desire  to  work 
his  own  way,  or  "  to  paddle  his  own  canoe,"  as  he 
expressed  it,  and  to  relieve  his  overtaxed  parents  of 
any  further  care  either  for  his  support  or  education, 
led  him  to  accept  at  once  his  father's  offer  of  the 
alternative    that  if  he  would    not  return  to  school 


26  Thomas  Dickson. 

he  should  go  to  work.  This  proposal  of  his  father 
was  doubtless  made  without  thought  of  the  possibility 
of  his  accepting  it,  and  with  the  expectation  that  he 
would  go  back  to  school.  But  the  alternative  of 
school,  with  submission  to  a  teacher  for  whom  he 
had  lost  respect,  or  work  and  wages  under  his  own 
control,  however  hard  the  one  or  limited  the  other, 
to  such  a  boy  as  he  was,  brought  the  issue  and 
decision  which  no  one  who  knew  him  in  after  life 
could  have  failed  to  expect. 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  Thomas  threw  away 
all  privileges  of  education  when  he  harnessed  himself 
to  the  mine-sweep  with  its  unruly  beast,  to  become  "a 
mule-driver  at  the  mines,"  and  so  set  up  for  himself. 
He  was  born  with  a  love  of  books,  and  read  every- 
thing within  his  reach.  After  he  had  settled  himself 
as  salesman  in  a  store  of  promiscuous  merchandise, 
one  Silas  S.  Benedict  came  to  Carbondale,  and 
proved  himself  an  excellent  teacher.  He  greatly 
quickened  the  interest  of  the  young  people  in  books 
and  in  the  search  for  knowledge ;  and  Thomas  for 
a  time  placed  himself  under  this  teacher's  private 
tuition.  Here  he  made  rapid  advancement,  and 
remained  long  enough  to  become  a  leader  in  the 
public  exhibitions  of  the  young  people  of  the  village, 
by  which  Mr.  Benedict  stimulated  the  progress  of 
his  pupils  in  literary  composition,  in  declamation, 
and  in  public  debate.  Here  Thomas  gained  his  first 
laurels  in  a  literary  way. 


Education  and  Educators.  27 

At  this  period  a  scheme  for  the  education  of  young 
men  became  general  in  the  country  in  the  way  of 
literary  societies  and  debating  clubs.  By  these  vil- 
lage and  neighborhood  societies  many  a  young  man, 
on  the  frontier,  prepared  himself  for  usefulness  and 
success  in  public  life.  It  was  in  such  a  club  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  found  one  of  his  great  educators. 
Young  Dickson  became  one  of  the  leaders  that 
organized  such  a  society  in  Carbondale,  and  in  it  he 
found  great  help  toward  the  development  of  his 
mental  resources.  Once  a  week  the  young  men 
gathered  together,  declaimed  speeches,  read  essays, 
and  debated  the  questions  of  public  interest  of  all 
sorts.  Occasionally  the  doors  of  the  club  were 
thrown  open  to  the  public  for  the  double  purpose  of 
testing  the  mettle  of  the  performers  and  of  culti- 
vating the  good-will  of  the  people.  With  these  liter- 
ary societies  were  often  connected  public  spelling- 
matches  and  reading  associations,  when  the  people 
gathered  to  witness  the  progress,  and  enjoy  the  pro- 
miscuous contests,  of  the  young  people  in  their  efforts 
to  educate  themselves.  Then,  for  the  education  and 
exercise  of  the  social  life  of  the  young  people,  sing- 
ing-schools were  appointed  and  encouraged,  which 
opened  a  free  field  for  the  conquest  of  hearts,  and  for 
the  tuning  of  the  young  gentlemen  and  young  ladies 
for  the  march  of  life  together.  It  was  in  these  liter- 
ary and  social  associations  that  Thomas  Dickson 
laid  the  broad  foundations  for  the  successful  and  use- 


28  Thomas  Dickson. 

ful  life  which  he  lived,  and  for  the  holding  of  his 
leading  position  among  his  fellows. 

The  effect  of  this  training  was  evident  in  the  inter- 
est which  he  in  all  his  life  manifested  in  books  and 
libraries.  As  soon  as,  in  the  advancement  of  his  life, 
he  had  entered  into  business  with  Mr.  Benjamin  as  a 
partner  in  that  promiscuous  store,  which  included 
both  an  iron  foundry  and  a  drug  department,  this 
young  man,  at  his  own  expense,  gathered  books  to 
form  a  circulating  library.  These  books  he  placed 
in  his  drug  store,  and  for  a  small  fee  he  loaned  them 
to  be  read  and  returned.  The  fees  for  the  reading 
were  applied  to  the  payment  for  the  books,  and  then 
to  the  purchase  of  new  books  as  the  plan  succeeded. 
This  library  he  kept  in  Carbondale  as  long  as  he 
was  in  business  there,  and  it  proved  a  benefaction 
to  the  whole  settlement.  Thus  his  interest  in  the 
advancement  and  well-being  of  the  people  began 
very  early  in  life,  and  it  continued  without  abate- 
ment throughout  his  career.  Along  with  the  good 
accomplished  among  his  associates,  male  and  female, 
by  cultivating  in  them  a  taste  for  reading,  and  so 
manifestly  in  lifting  up  society  in  a  new  settlement, 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  secured  direct  advan- 
tage to  himself.  Pushed  out  in  life  with  no  more 
education  than  his  hard-working  father  and  over- 
worked mother  could  give  him,  his  thirst  for  that 
knowledge  which  could  only  be  found  in  books,  was 
awakened,  in  good  measure,  by  the  position  of  lead- 


Education  and  Educators.  29 

ership  in  the  young  society  to  which    his    popular 
characteristics  pushed  him. 

He  seemed  to  possess  an  innate  love  of  poetry,  and 
very  early  became  familiar  with  the  Scottish  bards, 
whose  songs  he  had  learned  from  his  mother  and 
which  he  carried  with  him  through  life.  He  was 
equally  captivated  by  the  heroic  in  the  history  of  his 
native  land.  Hence,  by  the  enterprise  of  his  circu- 
lating library,  by  which  he  proposed  to  make  the 
readers  pay  for  the  books  by  small  installments,  he 
increased  his  own  store  of  knowledge,  and  thus  be- 
came a  rapid  and  careful  reader.  In  time  he  became 
a  sort  of  extemporaneous  encyclopedia  of  such  poets 
as  Ramsay,  Tom  Moore,  and  Burns,  as  well  as  of 
the  masterly  stories  of  Scott,  the  letters  of  Addison, 
and  essays  of  Charles  Lamb.  His  love  of  declama- 
tion led  him  from  these  to  the  pages  of  Shakspere, 
until,  as  he  often  told  me,  his  love  of  books  had  been 
a  snare  to  him  all  his  life.  He  had  to  resist  this  love 
of  reading  to  prevent  its  interference  with  his  duties 
in  business  trusts  and  responsibilities.  He  often  said 
to  his  friends,  after  he  had  passed  the  meridian  of  his 
life,  that  he  believed  he  ought  to  have  been  a  literary 
man ;  and  he  never  ceased  to  express  his  regret 
that  he  had  been  denied  the  privilege  of  a  classic 
education. 

Soon  after  he  removed  from  Carbondale,  leaving 
his  circulating  library,  and  had  come  to  Scranton  to 
enter  upon  his  great  business  enterprise,  he  began 


30  Thomas  Dickson. 

systematically  to  collect  books  for  a  library  for  him- 
self and  his  family.  Keeping  a  strict  account  of  his 
income  and  expenses,  he  systematically  devoted  a 
certain  amount  yearly  to  the  purchase  of  books,  and 
tried  to  read  them  as  fast  as  he  was  able  to  place 
them  in  his  library.  In  this  work  he  succeeded  until 
his  prosperity  and  his  enlarged  business  responsibili- 
ties both  gave  him  a  greater  number  of  books  than  he 
could  possibly  master,  and  allowed  him  less  time  to 
read  them.  For  many  years  he  "  limited  himself,"  as 
he  called  it,  to  the  expenditure  of  $500  a  year  for  the 
purchase  of  new  books.  He  was  accustomed  to  ex- 
cuse himself  to  his  cheerful  wife  for  what  might  seem 
to  her  an  extravagance  in  this  direction,  by  saying  that 
as  he  neither  spent  money  for  drink  nor  beastly  pleas- 
ure, he  thought  she  ought  to  allow  him  this  decent 
folly ;  which,  of  course,  she  was  always  too  happy  to 
do.  His  collection  of  books,  of  the  first  order,  con- 
tinued as  long  as  he  lived.  In  time  he  built  a  beau- 
tiful room  for  these  books,  which  opened  from  the 
family  sitting-room  in  his  homestead  in  Scranton, 
and  filled  it  with  the  choicest  works  in  the  English 
language,  on  all  subjects.  Gradually  this  library 
overflowed  until  the  family  room  had  all  its  vacant 
spaces  around  the  walls  occupied  with  standard 
works.  A  few  years  before  his  death  Mr.  Dickson 
had  his  library  conveniently  catalogued,  and  left 
more  than  six  thousand  volumes  to  his  estate  worthy 
of  a  place  in  any  library.      It  was  generally  believed 


Education  and  Educators.  31 

to  be  the  best  private  library  within  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  he  enjoyed  and  used  its  treasures 
as  long  as  he  lived. 

His  literary  efforts,  in  a  limited  way,  began  quite 
early.  Among  the  associates  of  his  youth  Thomas 
Dickson  frequently  appeared  before  a  limited  public 
in  addresses  upon  occasion  of  public  celebrations, 
and  especially  before  benevolent  associations,  of  which 
he  early  became  the  master-spirit.  He  took  special 
interest  in  the  organization  of  these  benevolent  so- 
cieties, both  because  of  their  charitable  and  social 
benefits  among  the  young  men  of  the  community. 
He  was  particularly  interested  in  the  Caledonian 
societies,  and,  as  long  as  he  lived,  took  part  in  the 
celebration  of  the  natal  day  of  their  favorite  poet, 
Robert  Burns. 

His  speeches  on  these  occasions  were  received 
with  great  gratification,  due  in  some  measure,  per- 
haps, to  his  individual  popularity,  but  more  especially 
because  they  were  generally  spiced  with  his  spark- 
ling vivacity  and  fun,  which  bubbled  up  and  ran  in  a 
perpetual  overflow  from  the  exuberance  of  his  daily 
life.  In  his  contact  with  the  world  and  associations 
in  life,  to  tease  and  perpetrate  practical  jokes  upon 
all  whom  he  liked  seemed  to  give  zest  to  his  very 
existence ;  and  this  disposition  continued  with  him 
under  all  vicissitudes.  As  long  as  he  lived  his  buoy- 
ancy of  spirit  never  failed  him.  His  sparkling  wit 
and  quiet  humor  were  as  constant  as  his  daily  bread. 


32  Thomas  Dickson, 

In  his  social  intercourse  with  all  classes  he  always 
found  it  necessary  to  have  some  one  to  tease,  whether 
in  his  office,  in  the  shop,  or  at  his  home. 

His  love  of  letters,  and  especially  of  poetry,  was 
illustrated  by  a  habit  which  his  wife  testifies  he  fol- 
lowed all  the  years  of  his  married  life.  As  soon  as  he 
arose  in  the  morning  and  had  performed  his  morning 
ablutions,  he  began  to  recite  speeches  or  to  repeat 
poetry  aloud.  He  walked  the  floor  of  his  room  as  he 
repeated  song  after  song,  stopping  now  and  then  to 
fire  some  quizzing  question,  or  some  startling  remark, 
for  the  entertainment  of  his  wife,  whom  he  equally 
delighted  to  puzzle  and  cheer.  "  Lalla  Rookh," 
"Tarn  o'  Shanter's  Mare,"  "The  Lady  of  the  Lake," 
"The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  "The  Relief  of 
Lucknow,"  and  a  dozen  more  of  what  he  deemed  the 
masterpieces  of  poetry  kept  constant  company  with 
him  in  his  bed-chamber.  His  beloved  wife  has  said 
that  she  hardly  recalls  a  morning  of  their  home  life 
when  he  did  not  greet  the  coming  day  with  some 
verses  or  standard  speeches.  Generally  he  timed 
his  dressing  with  the  length  of  the  recitation  he 
happened  to  have  in  hand.  Many  a  time  his  "guid 
wife,"  as  he  called  her,  would  have  to  warn  him  that 
his  cakes  were  growing  cold  while  he  was  in  the 
middle  of  his  favorite  recitation  of  Burns's  "  Land  o' 
Cakes"  or  of  the  "  Auld  Meal  Mill." 

Mr.  Dickson's  temptation  to  the  perpetration  of 
practical  jokes  or  to  tease  his  best  friends  had  many 


Education  and  Educators.  2>2> 

illustrations.  They  were  never  done  in  ill-nature, 
nor  were  any  persons  ever  chosen  his  subjects  for 
fun  that  did  not  possess  his  confidence  and  affection. 
Two  weeks  before  his  death  he  gave  assurance  to 
the  writer  of  this  memorial,  in  accounting  for  the 
many  practical  jokes  in  which  he  had  victimized  the 
friend  he  called  his  pastor,  that  these  were  only  the 
foolish  expressions  and  assurances  of  his  love ;  for 

HE  NEVER  JOKED  WITH  THOSE  THAT  HE  DID  NOT 
PROFOUNDLY  RESPECT. 

We  will  record  one  illustration  of  this  disposition 
to  enjoy  the  discomfiture  of  his  friends  at  the  expense 
of  his  fun,  and  it  will  be  one  in  the  literary  line. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Dickson  became  known  as  a  public 
talker  and  a  lover  of  books,  he  was  invited  to  follow 
with  a  patriotic  address  a  particular  friend  in  a  Fourth 
of  July  celebration  in  the  town  of  Montrose,  Pa. 

His  friend,  afterward  General  Mylert,  had  then 
quite  a  reputation  as  a  speaker,  and  was  expected 
to  deliver  the  principal  oration.  He  had  prepared 
himself  accordingly,  and  had  the  full  manuscript  of 
his  speech  in  his  pocket.  The  two  friends  traveled 
up  the  mountain  together  on  the  day  appointed.  On 
the  way  Dickson  noticed  the  roll  of  paper  protruding 
from  his  friend's  pocket,  and,  suspecting  what  it  might 
be,  he  quietly  transferred  it  to  his  own.  While  they 
rested  at  the  hotel  and  waited  for  lunch,  he  hastily 
looked  over  the  speech  and  said  he  liked  it.  When 
the  public  exercises  began,  he  sat  solemnly  by  the 


34  Thomas  Dickson, 

side  of  his  friend  on  the  platform,  who  had  no  sus- 
picion but  that  his  manuscript  was  where  he  could 
lay  his  hand  upon  it  as  soon  as  he  should  need  it. 
In  due  time  he  arose  and  began  his  oration.  After 
a  few  sentences  spoken,  he  began  to  feel  for  his 
paper,  and  found  it  was  not  in  any  of  his  pockets. 
Supposing  that  either  he  had  forgotten  it  at  home, 
or  else  that  it  had  fallen  out  by  the  way,  he  boldly 
struck  out  independently,  and  brought  out  all  his 
latent  resources,  with  blunder  and  extemporary  fer- 
vor. The  embryo  soldier  and  worthy  patriot  soon 
found  himself  independent  of  all  manuscript,  and 
carried  the  crowd  with  him,  and  so  triumphed  by  his 
very  misfortune.  After  he  was  through,  Dickson 
was  introduced  to  give  the  afterpiece  in  the  patriotic 
celebration.  He  arose,  and  with  all  the  solemnity 
of  his  father-in-law,  Deacon  Marvine,  and  after  the 
general  style  of  that  worthy,  he  drew  the  manuscript 
from  his  pocket  and  read  with  great  unction  and 
solemn  earnestness  the  speech  of  his  friend.  His 
style  was  so  natural,  and  became  so  thoroughly 
Dickson  as  he  proceeded,  without  any  reference  to 
the  author,  that  he  had  given  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  speech  before  his  friend  detected  his  own 
thought  in  the  composition.  It  was  so  boldly  and 
cleverly  done  that  his  friend  joined  in  the  hearty 
cheers  with  which  the  oration  was  greeted,  and  they 
returned  home  together,  splitting  their  sides  with 
laughter. 


THOS.    DICKSON, 

1857. 


Education  and  Educators.  35 

Throughout  life  Mr.  Dickson  was  a  student  of 
men  and  of  principles,  rather  than  of  books.  He 
treated  those  with  whom  he  was  connected  in  busi- 
ness or  in  social  life  as  equals  and  associates,  and  he 
soon  learned  each  one's  personal  peculiarities.  His 
perceptions  were  quick  and  clear,  and  his  judgments 
apparently  without  prejudice.  The  ability  to  weigh 
evidence  and  to  balance  probabilities  on  different 
sides  of  a  business  proposition,  was  unconsciously 
lost  sight  of  by  those  who  were  his  associates  ;  and 
perhaps  was  lost  sight  of  by  himself,  in  the  readiness 
with  which  he  reached  his  conclusions,  in  the  clear- 
ness with  which  he  announced  them,  or  in  the  pleas- 
ant pertinacity  with  which  he  stuck  to  them  after 
their  announcement. 

In  the  matter  of  writing  papers  he  mastered  the 
art  of  dictation.  He  used  an  amanuensis,  and  mani- 
fested a  great  ability  to  express  all  that  he  desired 
to  express  without  the  use  of  pen  or  pencil.  His 
power  of  concentration  in  composition  was  remark- 
able. He  could  dictate  letters  and  legal  papers, 
apparently  without  previous  arrangement  or  con- 
sideration, and  sometimes  carried  on  half  a  dozen 
subjects  at  the  same  time  without  breaking  the  con- 
tinuity of  thought.  He  was  never  known  to  make 
any  study  of  the  law.  Perhaps  he  never  read 
"Blackstone"  in  his  life.  But  he  possessed  a  legal 
ability,  which  he  cultivated  in  his  work,  that  was 
recognized  by  his  associates  as  truly  remarkable  in 


36  Thomas  Dickson. 

his  handling  the  immense  business  interests  com- 
mitted to  him.  He  drew  the  most  complex  legal 
papers  in  which  were  involved  the  interests  both  of 
the  "  Dickson  Manufacturing"  and  the  "  Delaware 
and  Hudson"  companies;  including  deeds  for  very 
large  amounts  of  real  estate,  and  contracts  embrac- 
ing millions  of  dollars.  He  was  accustomed  to  dic- 
tate these  papers  with  a  comprehensive  grasp  and 
accuracy,  and  with  a  technical  legal  expression,  which 
the  best  lawyers  seldom  attempted  to  modify.  It 
was  perhaps  this  ability  to  draw  legal  papers  without 
the  use  of  books,  or  the  aid  of  learned  counsel,  which 
made  the  deepest  impression  of  his  great  powers 
upon  his  associates  in  business.  There  were  con- 
stant speculations  among  the  higher  circles  of  pro- 
fessional men  touching  this  peculiar  ability;  as  to 
whether  it  were  a  natural  gift  or  a  result  of  cultiva- 
tion. His  native  honesty  and  his  high  sense  of 
justice,  between  man  and  man,  no  doubt  gave  him 
clearness  of  perception  in  this  direction.  It  was  very 
seldom  indeed  that  his  embodiment  of  a  business 
transaction  did  not  entirely  satisfy  the  parties  in- 
volved, as  well  as  stand  the  test  of  legal  investiga- 
tion. One  of  the  best  lawyers  at  the  bar  of  Lacka- 
wanna County  was  accustomed  to  say  that  Dickson's 
legal  papers  were  as  good  as  he  himself  could  draw. 
Mr.  Dickson's  life  was  too  busy  to  permit  him  to 
give  his  attention  to  that  which  he  thought  was  the 
one  bent  of  his  mind,  which  was  original  investiga- 


Education  and  Educators.  37 

tion  and  literary  composition.  He  said  to  the  writer 
of  this,  in  the  later  days  of  his  career,  that  he  had 
wasted  his  life,  wishing  and  intending  to  write  some- 
thing that  would  live ;  but  he  never  found  the  time 
to  begin.  While  making  a  tour  of  the  world  he 
wrote  a  series  of  letters,  which  covered  the  impres- 
sions and  observations  of  his  wanderings ;  but  these 
letters  were  all  directed  to  members  of  the  family, 
and  were  evidently  not  intended  for  publication. 
After  his  return  home  he  prepared  a  few  lectures  on 
the  different  countries  through  which  he  had  trav- 
eled, and  upon  invitation  he  delivered  them  publicly 
in  a  number  of  places.  But  these  were  always  given 
on  behalf  of  some  benevolent  cause,  and  generally 
on  behalf  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
in  which  he  was  constantly  interested,  and  to  which 
he  was  a  most  generous  contributor.  He  never 
failed  to  gather  a  full  house,  or  to  entertain  his  audi- 
ence ;  but  it  was  generally  thought  that  the  attrac- 
tion was  the  man  rather  than  his  lectures.  He 
himself  found  that  in  order  to  instruct  and  entertain 
a  promiscuous  public,  a  study  and  practice  were 
required  which  he  could  not  undertake,  and  that 
possibly  it  required  a  talent  which  he  did  not  pos- 
sess. He  was  always  most  at  home  in  the  social 
circle  of  literary  friends,  and  in  this  he  was  the 
most  entertaining  and  instructive. 

This  much  I  have  recorded  of  the  book  education 
and  the  literary  taste  of  this  worthy  man  of  remark- 


3&  Thomas  Dickson. 

able  powers,  as  well  as  of  conspicuous  success. 
Thomas  Dickson  was  never  as  strong  or  electric  in 
his  literary  composition  as  he  was  in  his  extempore 
conversation.  It  was  when  his  mind  came  in  con- 
tact or  in  collision  with  other  great  minds  that  he 
sparkled  and  showed  his  really  fascinating  powers. 


III. 


HIS    ORGANIZING    POWER BUSINESS    ENTERPRISE 

HONORABLE    SUCCESS. 


FROM  the  day  that  the  boy  Thomas  mounted 
that  unruly  mule,  whose  mastery  he  had  to 
make  two  attempts  to  establish  before  he  succeeded 
in  bringing  him  to  his  work  at  the  mine-sweep,  he 
entered  upon  his  business  career.  He  was  small  for 
his  age ;  but  his  sprightliness,  his  neatness  of  habit, 
and  his  general  good  behavior  had  made  him  a  gen- 
eral favorite  in  the  village.  As  soon  as  it  became 
known  that  he  had  left  school  and  was  looking  for 
work,  the  best  people  of  his  acquaintance  in  the 
community  became  interested  in  his  behalf.  His 
first  application  was  to  the  mine  superintendent, 
very  naturally,    and   he   was   successful    in    obtain- 


39 


40  Thomas  Dickson. 

ing  the  only  situation  that  could  be  given  him  at 
the  time.  He  was,  however,  allowed  to  fill  it  for 
only  about  a  week  or  ten  days.  Business  men 
thought  it  a  shame,  or  rather  a  waste  of  human 
resources,  to  keep  such  a  boy  guiding  a  beast,  to 
draw  coal  by  the  bucketful  from  the  mines.  It  was 
the  performance  of  this  work  for  a  week,  or  ten 
days,  which  followed  him  all  his  life  in  the  statement, 
never  denied,  that  "  he  began  his  business  career  as 
a  mule-driver  at  the  mines/'  In  a  very  short  time, 
at  least,  Mr.  Charles  T.  Pierson,  a  merchant  of  the 
town,  offered  him  a  place  in  his  store,  as  a  clerk  and 
boy  of  all  work.  With  this  offer  he  went  to  his 
employer,  and  resigned  his  position  at  the  sweep. 
The  superintendent  kindly  dismissed  him,  and  sent 
him  to  the  paymaster  for  his  wages.  This  paymas- 
ter happened  to  be  Deacon  Marvine,  and  the  father 
of  the  little  miss  who  in  due  time  became  Mrs. 
Thomas  Dickson,  and  so  shared  all  the  trials  and 
successes  of  life  with  him.  The  deacon  congratu- 
lated his  little  friend  on  his  finding  employment 
worthy  of  his  ambition  and  standing,  and  paid  him 
an  extra  dollar  for  the  excellent  care  he  had  taken 
of  the  animal  committed  to  his  charge. 

This  little  incident  brings  to  light  a  characteristic 
of  the  boy  that  followed  him  through  life.  This  was 
his  neatness  of  habit  and  purity  of  life.  He  would 
not  drive  even  a  dirty  mule,  if  he  had  power  to  make 
him  neat  and  tidy.     He  was  a  poor  boy,  indeed,  but 


Organizing  Power.  41 

he  was  never  ashamed  to  wear  the  coarse  clothes 
which  his  mother  prepared  for  him,  and  he  kept 
them  in  such  trim  that  no  one  thought  of  their 
coarseness.  By  his  cheerful  face  and  his  natural 
manliness  he  commended  himself  to,  and  was  readily 
received  in,  all  the  best  society  the  village  afforded. 
This  habit  of  neatness  followed  him  through  life. 
While  there  was  nothing  of  the  dandy  apparent  in 
his  youth,  when  he  became  a  leader  in  the  young 
society,  nor  anything  of  the  fop  suggested  in  his 
dress  or  taste  when  he  sat  at  the  head  of  the  board, 
in  New- York,  guiding  the  immense  business  of  a 
great  corporation,  his  befitting  dress  and  his  neat- 
ness of  habit  always  impressed  all  who  came  in  con- 
tact with  him. 

It  was  not  long  after  he  entered  Mr.  Pierson's 
store  before  he  found  himself  in  the  way  of  promo- 
tion. As  soon  as  he  made  up  his  mind  to  become  a 
merchant,  he  applied  himself  to  the  learning  of  the 
whole  business.  It  does  not  now  appear  just  how 
long  he  was  with  Pierson.  The  probability  is  that 
Mr.  Pierson's  business  did  not  long  require  such  an 
assistant  as  young  Dickson  proved  himself  to  be.  It 
is  evident,  however,  that  they  parted  with  mutual 
satisfaction,  for  they  were  afterward  associated  in 
Dickson's  great  business  enterprises,  and  were  warm 
personal  friends  as  long  as  Mr.  Pierson  lived;  and 
Mr.  Dickson  was  chosen  the  guardian  of  his  estate 
and  family  after  his  death. 


42  Thomas  Dickson. 

Mr.  Joseph  Benjamin  about  that  time  was  one  of 
the  largest  merchants  in  the  village ;  and  Thomas 
entered  his  employment  and  very  soon  became  his 
most  trusted  clerk.  He  identified  himself  with  all 
his  employer's  interests,  and  by  his  popular  ways, 
both  in  and  out  of  the  store,  became  a  most  efficient 
helper  in  the  business.  His  rapid  and  steady  prog- 
ress in  reaching  the  position  of  a  popular  business 
young  man  was  generally  recognized,  and  his  worth 
was  very  early  felt  in  the  community.  This  was 
evinced  by  the  fact  that  when,  after  a  couple  of 
years,  Mr.  Frederick  P.  Grow  bought  Mr.  Benja- 
min's store,  he  made  it  one  of  the  conditions  of  the 
purchase  that  Thomas  Dickson  should  go  with  it 
and  enter  his  employment.  While  Dickson  could 
not  exactly  consent  to  be  sold  with  the  goods,  his 
attachment  to  the  store  led  him  to  go  with  it.  For 
two  years  he  became  a  member  of  Mr.  Grow's  fam- 
ily, and  stood  with  him  at  the  head  of  the  business. 

Mr.  Grow  was  a  man  of  high  honor  and  excellent 
business  integrity,  who  needed  just  such  an  assist- 
ant. He  was  also  a  Christian  gentleman  of  most 
genial  spirit,  and  a  very  faithful  friend.  The  friend- 
ship formed  between  these  two  young  men  became 
one  of  the  conspicuous  and  beautiful  features  in  the 
life  of  each.  Dickson's  attachment  for  Grow  never 
weakened  or  faltered.  If  we  may  judge  by  the  test 
that  Dickson  intended  to  give  when  he  said  he  never 
teased   anybody  whom   he  did  not   love,  or  if  the 


Organizing  Power,  43 

amount  of  his  teasing  was  in  any  proportion  to  the 
measure  of  his  true  affection,  it  is  perfectly  evident 
that  Frederick  P.  Grow  and  his  excellent  wife  were 
special  objects  of  his  confidence  and  love  through  all 
the  years  of  his  life.  Mrs.  Grow  seems,  from  the  begin- 
ning, to  have  adopted  the  head  clerk  of  her  husband's 
store  as  the  child  of  her  heart,  and  always  appeared 
to  be  most  happy  when  taking  a  motherly  care  of 
him.  Even  down  to  the  day  of  his  death  her  interest 
in  him  continued,  and  Mr.  Dickson's  funeral  presented 
no  more  touching  scene  than  that  of  this  woman,  in 
her  widowhood,  weeping  over  his  fallen  tabernacle. 

Thomas  Dickson  was  born  with  a  facility  for  mak- 
ing friends,  and  equally  for  holding  them,  when  he 
had  once  attached  them  to  himself.  His  friends,  in 
all  his  business  life,  were  found  among  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men.  The  intelligent  and  the 
humble,  the  day-laborer  and  the  associate  in  his 
office,  and  the  representatives  of  rival  industries,  all 
seemed  to  be  personally  attached  to  him,  and  took 
every  proper  opportunity  to  show  him  their  confi- 
dence and  love. 

About  two  years  after  Mr.  Benjamin  had  sold  out 
his  store  to  Mr.  Grow,  he  again  entered  the  field 
with  a  much  larger  and  more  general  stock  of  mer- 
chandise. He  purchased  the  foundry,  which  had 
been  set  in  operation  a  few  years  before,  and  in- 
cluded a  drug  department  in  his  promiscuous  store ; 
and  so  prepared  himself  to  meet  the  general  wants 


44  Thomas  Dickson. 

of  the  community.  Mr.  Dickson  had  taken  good 
care  of  his  salary,  feeling  that  he  owed  it  to  his  self- 
respect,  as  well  as  to  his  family,  to  confine  his 
expenditures  within  his  income,  and,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, thus  be  ready  to  contribute  his  portion  toward 
the  help  of  his  parents  in  any  family  burdens  or 
exigencies  which  might  come  upon  them.  By  an 
economy  which  never  suggested  stinginess,  he  had 
been  able  to  save  something  for  capital ;  and  he  now 
especially  wished  to  try  his  hand  in  business  for 
himself.  About  this  time  his  grandfather,  whose 
name  he  bore,  sent  him  an  earnest  invitation  to  visit 
him  in  Scotland,  and  accompanied  the  invitation 
with  the  money  necessary  to  meet  his  expenses  on 
such  a  visit.  Thomas  placed  this  money  in  bank, 
and  after  careful  consideration  determined  to  deny 
himself  the  visit,  until  he  could  get  more  fully  upon 
his  feet.  Finding  that  Mr.  Benjamin  wanted  his 
services  in  his  new  store  and  general  enterprise,  he 
proposed  to  go  in  with  his  old  friend  as  a  junior 
partner.  This  proposition  was  readily  accepted,  and 
Dickson  entered  the  firm  by  placing  his  grand- 
father's gift,  with  all  the  ready  money  he  could  raise, 
in  the  business.  This  proposal  thus  accepted,  he 
at  once  took  special  charge  of  the  drug  depart- 
ment; but  very  soon  became  head  manager  in  the 
store,  giving  as  much  time  as  he  could  to  the  de- 
tails of  the  foundry.  The  business  was  quite  suc- 
cessful, especially  in  the  direction  of  the  foundry; 


Organizing  Power.  45 

and  gradually  both  partners  turned  their  attention  to 
the  development  of  this  department  of  their  business, 
leaving  the  store  more  generally  to  the  management 
of  reliable  clerks,  among  whom  were  his  brothers 
John  A.  and  George  L.,  who  in  a  few  years  became 
partners  in  the  concern;  and  both  entered  upon  a 
most  successful  business  career  for  themselves.  Mr. 
Dickson  continued  in  this  business  with  Benjamin 
up  to  the  spring  of  1856,  some  ten  years  after  his 
marriage,  prospering  in  it  throughout  most  of  that 
time. 

By  this  time  the  industries  of  the  coal-field  had 
reached  a  second  stage  in  the  measure  of  their 
development,  and  gave  dim  prophecies  of  their 
future  greatness.  The  Lackawanna  valley  was  still 
a  wilderness,  with  its  dense  forests  of  pine  and 
hemlock.  Its  pure  streams  were  filled  with  trout, 
while  deer  from  the  mountains  were  to  be  seen 
now  and  then  on  the  outskirts  of  the  small  settle- 
ments. The  iron-works  established  by  "The  Scran- 
tons  and  Piatt "  in  the  Slocum  hollow  had  struggled 
through  many  disappointments  and  hard  times,  and 
especially  through  the  failure  of  their  expectation  in 
the  effort  to  develop  what  they  then  supposed  to  be 
the  real  wealth  of  the  valley.  They  had  placed  their 
iron-works  alongside  of  the  outcrop  of  anthracite 
coal,  within  plain  sight  of  the  immense  mineral 
wealth  which  invited  their  enterprise;  but  it  was 
with  the  persuasion  that  the  bog-iron  ore  found  here 


fl 


4.6  Thomas  Dickson, 

and  there  in  small  quantities,  and  the  abundant  tim- 
ber at  hand  for  feeding  a  charcoal  furnace,  and  for 
the  supply  of  a  good  lumber-mill,  had  opened  for 
them  a  highway  to  wealth. 

The  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Co.,  organized 
many  years  earlier,  with  its  management  in  New- 
York  and  its  field-center  at  Honesdale,  in  its  at- 
tempts to  operate  in  the  valley  of  the  Lackawanna, 
had  found  immense  difficulty,  with  limited  success, 
in  its  management.  The  early  operators  in  anthra- 
cite coal  all  had  to  learn  wisdom  by  the  hard  way  of 
experience,  as  had  the  pioneers  in  all  other  enter- 
prises in  the  country.  The  amazing  devotion  of 
American  genius  to  the  mechanic  arts,  which,  in  a 
single  generation,  has  produced  its  fruitage  in  the 
immense  progress  of  invention,  which  has  revolu- 
tionized the  world,  and  the  ages,  had  at  that  time 
hardly  begun.  The  master  mechanic  of  this  greatest 
coal  company  of  that  day  was  a  worthy  millwright, 
puzzling  himself  alternately  in  a  wilderness  of  imper- 
fect or  untried  machinery  and  of  unknown  wants  and 
indefinite  necessities.  The  chief  leverage  for  lifting 
the  treasures  buried  hundreds  of  feet  under-ground 
had  been  the  pulley  and  sweep  operated  along  slopes 
with  a  motive  power  of  mules  and  horses.  Only  such 
coal  veins  as  were  above  water-level  could  be  worked, 
as  no  adequate  machinery  had  come  into  the  field  for 
the  clearing  of  the  mines  of  water.  The  exhaustless 
power  for  pumping  out  and  working  these  mines 


Organizing  Power.  47 

was  yet  to  be  found  in  the  streams  which  came  sing- 
ing down  the  mountain-sides,  or  lay  like  ribbons  of 
silver  in  all  the  valleys.  These  mountain  streams, 
with  their  banners  of  vapor  in  the  frosty  air,  were 
ever  suggestive  of  the  unmeasured  service  ready  to 
be  bestowed  on  him  who  should  discover  and  har- 
ness the  latent  forces,  which  thus  far  had  been  wasted 
all  over  the  world  on  overshot  and  turbine  wheels. 

The  power  of  steam  had  indeed  been  discovered, 
and  venturesome  men  had  invented  imperfect  machin- 
ery for  its  direction  and  use ;  but  the  difficulties  and 
drawbacks  were  immense,  and  the  capital  both  scarce 
and  very  timid. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  these  difficulties,  and  right 
along  the  line  of  this  highway  of  slow  development 
and  of  immense  outlay  of  capital,  of  patience,  and  of 
industry,  that  the  path  of  young  Dickson  lay,  as  he 
brought  his  brains  and  honest  purpose  into  the  field 
of  enterprise  and  labor.  As  soon  as  he  had  be- 
come identified  with  Benjamin  in  the  foundry  at  Car- 
bondale,  the  enterprise  of  making  tinctures  and 
molding  pills,  whose  virtues  he  tested  on  green 
clerks  and  inquiring  rustics,  for  the  amusement  of 
young  men,  became  entirely  too  small  for  his 
thoughts  and  plans  of  life.  His  thoughts  began  to 
turn  toward  the  necessities  and  uses  of  machinery 
for  the  development  of  the  coal  enterprise,  which  his 
foresight  told  him  must  be  immense,  in  the  near 
future.     The  success,  in  a  limited  way,  of  the  Benja- 


48  Thomas  Dickson. 

min  foundry  suggested  to  him  a  larger  enterprise  in 
this  direction,  and  he  longed  for  the  possession  of 
such  a  field  of  work,  in  which  he  could  himself  be  the 
leader ;  one  which  might  in  time  provide  the  machin- 
ery already  needed,  and  which  he  foresaw  must  be 
needed  in  increasing  quantities  throughout  the  val- 
ley. It  required  at  that  time  a  whole  week  to  travel 
from  the  coal-fields  to  New- York,  or  Philadelphia. 
The  transportation  of  supplies,  or  of  machinery,  was 
exceedingly  slow,  laborious,  and  costly.  Through 
much  of  the  way  this  transportation  had  to  be  by 
wagons,  with  mule  teams,  on  roads,  too,  almost 
impassable.  Added  to  this  was  the  difficulty  of  con- 
structing or  improving  machinery  suitable  for  the 
necessities  of  the  work,  so  far  away  from  the  field  of 
operation.  All  these  facts  weighed  upon  the  active 
mind  of  young  Dickson,  until  at  length  he  deter- 
mined to  attempt  the  organization  of  a  manufact- 
uring company  under  his  own  control.  He  at  once 
brought  to  this  purpose  his  peculiar  talent  for 
utilizing  the  human  forces  within  his  reach.  He 
enlisted  his  father  and  his  brothers,  and  then  his 
partner  and  some  of  his  associates  in  the  village, 
and  put  his  whole  force  into  the  organization  of  this 
scheme.  After  he  had  settled  upon  his  plan  for  the 
organization  of  a  partnership  company,  and  had 
induced  his  father,  James  Dickson,  and  his  two 
brothers,  John  A.  and  George  L.,  who  had  become 
interested  with  him  in  the  store,  to  unite  with  him  as 


Organizing  Power.  49 

far  as  they  were  able  in  the  venture,  he  then  inter- 
ested the  two  brothers,  Charles  P.  and  Morris  Wurts, 
and  with  them  Messrs.  Joseph  Benjamin,  Peter  J. 
Du  Bois,  Charles  T.  Pierson,  and  John  Dorrance.  All 
of  these  men  had  been  more  or  less  intimate  or 
associated  with  him  in  the  struggles  of  their  earlier 
life  and  business.  These  all  joined  in  the  enterprise 
as  silent  partners,  and  placed  their  money,  to  a  lim- 
ited amount,  in  the  firm  which  was  established  under 
the  title  of  "  Dickson  &  Company." 

Thus  a  great  and  permanent  industry  was  started 
in  the  valley  by  the  foresight  and  energy  of  this 
young  man  while  the  dew  of  youth  was  yet  upon 
him  ;  and  with  its  growth  and  efficiency  he  has  ever 
been  identified.  In  the  early  spring  of  1856  this 
enterprise  took  practical  shape.  In  April  of  that 
year  the  organization  of  this  company  was  definitely 
effected  as  the  recognized  business  of  "  Dickson  & 
Co.";  and  Thomas  Dickson  was  chosen  its  active 
manager.  After  a  careful  study  of  different  locali- 
ties, touching  their  advantages  for  such  a  plan  as 
was  proposed,  and  considering  their  promises  of 
future  success  to  the  industry  which  he  had  deter- 
mined to  inaugurate,  the  young  manager,  then 
thirty-two  years  of  age,  concluded  to  establish 
his  plant  at  Scranton,  which  had  already  begun 
decidedly  to  grow,  under  the  wise  management  of 
the  Lackawanna  Iron  and  Coal  Company.  He  was 
doubtless  influenced  to  this  decision,  in  some  meas- 


50  Thomas  Dickson. 

ure,  by  the  prospect  of  railway  connections,  which 
promised  better  at  that  time  for  this  point  than  for 
any  other  in  the  valley.  He  acted  promptly  as  soon 
as  his  mind  was  made  up,  as  was  his  habit.  He 
purchased  for  his  site  a  number  of  acres  on  what 
was  then  known  as  Pine  Brook,  at  the  point  where 
it  emptied  into  the  Lackawanna,  and  close  by  the 
village  graveyard.  Thus  early  he  began  the  work  of 
interesting  the  members  of  the  Lackawanna  Iron 
and  Coal  Company  in  his  scheme.  As  soon  as  this 
purchase  was  completed  from  that  company,  he  sent 
down  from  Carbondale  a  sturdy,  hard-working  Scot 
who  called  himself  Sandy  Turnbull,  who  had  applied 
to  Mr.  Dickson  for  work  of  any  sort.  As  soon  as 
the  frost  permitted  he,  in  the  spring  of  1856,  began 
to  dig  for  the  foundations  of  the  new  shop,  whose 
future  success  was  destined  to  carry  the  Dickson 
name  over  most  of  the  continents.  This  same  Sandy 
Turnbull  spent  his  life  running  the  main  engine  of 
the  shop,  with  whose  noise  and  song  he  forever  min- 
gled his  praises  of  Thomas  Dickson,  his  employer. 
He  seemed  to  think  he  was  still  working  for  "To- 
mus,"  as  he  called  him,  years  after  Mr.  Dickson  had 
finished  his  work  and  gone  to  his  rest.  To  this  faith- 
ful Scot  it  will  be  glory  enough  for  this  world  if  he 
should  learn  that  his  name  had  occurred  in  a  me- 
morial of  Thomas  Dickson. 

This  venture   of  the  Dickson    Company   proved 
generally  successful,  and   throughout   its   history  it 


»  i  »  J 


Organizing  Power.  51 

has  been  one  of  the  potent  forces  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Lackawanna  Coal  enterprise,  as  well 
as  in  securing  the  growth  and  blessing  of  the  city 
of  Scranton.  On  the  1st  of  May,  1862,  the  com- 
pany was  reorganized,  enlarged,  and  chartered  as 
a  stock  company  under  the  law  of  Pennsylvania, 
under  the  name,  style,  and  title  of  "The  Dick- 
son Manufacturing  Company."  This  company  was 
named  for  Thomas  Dickson,  its  founder,  and  he  was 
chosen  its  president  and  sole  acting  manager.  With 
energetic  fervor  and  careful  industry  Mr.  Dickson 
pushed  this  enterprise  and  met  with  rapid  success. 
His  two  brothers,  John  A.  and  George  L.,  and  his 
sister's  husband,  John  R.  Fordham,  quite  early  be- 
came identified  with  him  in  the  works,  and  two  of 
them  continued  with  the  shop  long  after  he  had  left 
its  presidency.  His  friend,  Charles  T.  Pierson,  after 
the  stock  company  was  established,  came  to  Scranton 
to  represent  the  Carbondale  stockholders  in  the  prac- 
tical conduct  of  the  business.  But  for  years  the 
controlling  stock  was  in  the  Dickson  family,  and  the 
president  never  lost  any  of  the  confidence  which 
these  worthy  business  men  reposed  in  him.  "The 
Dickson  Manufacturing  Company"  built  locomotives 
for  the  railways  and  engines  for  the  mills  and  mines. 
They  constructed  all  kinds  of  machinery  for  the  man- 
ufacturing industries  of  the  rapidly  forming  com- 
panies and  developing  business  enterprises  all  over 
the  country,  east  and  west.     They  constantly   en- 


52  Thomas  Dickson, 

larged  their  shops  and  facilities  until,  in  the  locomo- 
tive department  alone,  they  were  capable  of  com- 
pleting two  locomotives  every  week,  and  their 
stationary  engines  and  machinery  found  ultimately 
a  world-wide  market. 

In  the  presidency  of  this  successful  enterprise 
Thomas  Dickson  was  succeeded,  as  time  passed, 
first,  by  his  brother,  George  L.  Dickson,  then  by  his 
daughter's  husband,  Colonel  Henry  M.  Boies,  and 
then  by  his  eldest  son,  James  P.  Dickson  ;  each  of 
whom  enlarged  the  capacity  and  efficiency  of  the 
works.  The  company  still  continues  to  operate  under 
the  management  of  James  P.  Dickson,  and  bids  fair 
to  carry  the  name  with  honor  through  the  business 
schemes  of  coming  generations. 

The  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company  be- 
came one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Dickson  Man- 
ufacturing Company  very  early  in  its  career,  by  the 
purchase  of  its  products.  Indeed,  its  general  trans- 
portation superintendent,  Charles  P.  Wurts,  and  a 
number  of  its  employees  were  stockholders  in  it. 
But  the  directors  of  that  corporation  became  friendly 
to  its  enterprise,  first,  through  the  excellency  of  the 
work  it  turned  out  of  the  shop;  and  then  by  the 
business  honesty  manifested  by  the  young  president 
and  manager.  This  historic  canal  and  coal  corpora- 
tion had  found  immense  difficulty  in  developing  their 
coal  enterprise,  which  was  perhaps  increased  by  the 
distance  of  the  headquarters  of  the  organization  from 


Organizing  Power,  53 

its  field  of  operations,  as  well  as  from  the  hindrances 
of  imperfect  transportation.  The  general  panic  and 
business  disturbance  of  1857  brought  to  this  com- 
pany, as  it  did  to  all  great  corporations,  immense 
perplexity  and  trouble.  From  the  entanglement  and 
depression  of  business,  in  which  the  disturbance  of 
the  country  was  almost  universal,  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  corporation  recovered  but  slowly.  The 
"Manufacturing  Company"  under  Mr.  Dickson's 
management  came  to  their  help  as  far  as  it  was  pos- 
sible. He  aided  the  company  in  various  ways,  both 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  enterprise  and  theirs,  and  so 
attracted  responsible  men  toward  himself  and  his 
manufacturing  interest. 

At  length,  in  the  summer  of  1859,  Mr.  George  T. 
Olyphant,  then  President  of  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Company,  came  to  the  valley  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  the  field  management  into  a  more  efficient 
condition.  James  Archbald  had  resigned  his  posi- 
tion as  coal  superintendent  a  few  years  before,  to  be 
succeeded  by  John  and  James  Hosie,  in  their  order, 
each  of  whom,  after  a  short  service,  had  left  the  field 
to  undertake  other  important  enterprises.  During 
the  interval,  and  up  to  this  time,  Charles  P.  Wurts, 
Superintendent  of  Transportation,  had  had  general 
charge.  He  was  a  most  efficient  officer,  who  had 
completed  the  Gravity  Road,  built  to  connect  the 
company's  canal  at  Honesdale  with  the  field  of  oper- 
ation in  Carbondale,  and  was  now  preparing  to  leave 


54  Thomas  Dickson. 

the  country  for  a  sojourn  of  some  years  in  Europe 
in  the  enjoyment  of  his  private  fortune.  While  here 
Mr.  Olyphant  met  Thomas  Dickson  at  the  time  he 
was  perplexed  with  this  condition  of  things,  in  which 
he  felt  a  personal  responsibility,  and  was  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  it  would  be  the  best  thing 
for  their  enterprise  to  get  him  interested  in  the 
canal  company.  After  consideration  he  offered  to 
him  first  the  place  of  coal  superintendent,  and  then, 
as  soon  as  Mr.  Wurts  should  have  withdrawn,  that 
of  general  superintendent  or  field  manager  for  the 
Delaware  and  Hudson  Company. 

This  was  a  decided  advance  upon  any  position 
Mr.  Dickson  had  yet  occupied,  and  involved  a  large 
addition  both  of  work  and  responsibility ;  but  he 
believed  himself  by  his  knowledge  and  energy  capa- 
ble of  fulfilling  its  duties.  After  a  careful  considera- 
tion, with  his  characteristic  and  transparent  honesty, 
Mr.  Dickson  agreed  to  enter  the  service  of  the 
company,  with  the  proviso  that  he  should  be  per- 
mitted to  retain  his  position  at  the  head  of  "The 
Dickson  Manufacturing  Company,"  and  at  the  same 
time  hold  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company,  as 
formerly,  a  regular  purchaser  of  the  products  of  their 
shop.  This,  of  course,  was  a  condition  which  could 
be  permitted  only  upon  a  conviction  of  the  highest 
integrity  in  the  manager.  It  must  give  power  to 
the  salaried  officer  of  the  coal  corporation,  in  some 
measure,  to  use  his  position  for  the  enlargement  and 


Organizing  Power,  55 

prosperity  of  another  corporation,  in  which  both 
his  money  and  his  reputation  were  involved.  But 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company  seems  not  to 
have  hesitated  to  accept  these  terms.  They  made 
the  appointment.  This  was  the  highest  compliment 
they  could  have  paid  to  the  integrity  and  manliness 
of  Thomas  Dickson.  Nor  did  they  ever  have  reason 
to  regret  the  trust  they  reposed  in  him.  They  placed 
him  in  this  position  of  general  manager  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1859,  and  allowed  him  to  supply  the  field 
necessities  of  the  corporation  from  the  machine-shop 
which  he  had  established  and  had  fully  in  hand. 
Thus  Thomas  Dickson  became  identified  with  this 
great  coal  and  transportation  company,  with  whose 
subsequent  growth  and  history  he  was  to  become  so 
conspicuously  identified. 

For  ten  years  Mr.  Dickson  held  this  double  position, 
becoming  constantly  more  burdened  with  its  work  and 
responsibility.  The  enlarged  schemes  of  both  com- 
panies called  for  the  highest  and  most  conserva- 
tive financiering  ability.  The  outbreak  of  the  civil 
war  had  proven  an  unexpected  stimulant  to  all  busi- 
ness enterprise.  In  nothing  was  it  more  powerful 
than  in  the  iron  and  coal  departments  in  which  Mr. 
Dickson  was  interested.  The  demand  for  the  anthra- 
cite coal,  and  for  machinery  of  all  sorts,  constantly 
enlarged  throughout  the  four  years  of  the  war. 
Both  the  coal-mining  of  the  valley  and  the  work 
of  the  machine-shops  were  doubled  in  a  very  short 


56  Thomas  Dickson. 

time,  and  this  gave  Mr.  Dickson  immense  increase 
of  work  and  responsibility.  There  was  not  only  the 
work  of  the  day  to  be  done,  but  foundations  wisely  to 
be  laid  for  future  enterprise.  There  were  coal-lands 
to  be  discovered,  the  various  strata  developed  and 
tested,  and  leased  or  purchased.  There  were  break- 
ers to  be  located  and  built,  and  these  to  be  furnished 
with  the  best  machinery.  There  were  immense  trans- 
actions in  real  estate,  in  which  titles  were  to  be  traced 
through  tortuous  lines  of  early  history  and  made 
secure.  There  were  homes  to  provide  for  under- 
officials  and  laborers.  There  was  live  stock,  in  the 
way  of  hundreds  of  horses  and  mules,  with  all  the 
supplies  and  equipments  necessary  to  their  efficient 
use;  and  with  these  the  immense  care  included  in 
the  active  superintendence  and  control  of  miners, 
and  other  employees  of  all  sorts.  Then  along  with 
this  multiplied  trust  was  the  operation  and  care  of 
fifteen  miles  of  gravity  railway,  with  its  lifting-en- 
gines, and  the  supply  and  protection  of  the  company's 
canal  from  Honesdale  to  tide-water.  The  care  and 
management  of  all  this  work  Mr.  Dickson  under- 
took, and  was  successful  in  it,  while  he  still  held  his 
responsible  relation  as  President  of  the  Dickson 
Manufacturing  Company,  which  he  had  already  led 
to  what  he  felt  to  be  an  assured  success. 

Of  course  it  was  impossible  for  any  man  directly 
to  manage  all  this  multiplied  work ;  but  Mr.  Dickson 
developed  and  manifested  a  power  and  genius  in  his 


Organizing  Power.  57 

management  that  few  men  ever  reach.  In  these  two 
positions  he  applied  and  demonstrated  his  native 
endowments,  and  especially  his  ability  to  select,  to 
harmonize  and  use  any  number  of  subordinates  with 
the  smallest  amount  of  friction,  and  so  as  to  secure 
the  best  general  results.  His  judgment  was  so  clear, 
and  his  conclusions  so  fortified  and  distinctly  an- 
nounced, both  to  his  associates,  subordinates,  and 
employers,  that  they  seldom  needed  revision.  He 
was  said  to  be  a  stubborn  man,  and  probably  he  was. 
But  he  always  gained  his  points  with  the  best  of 
good  nature,  and  his  triumphs  left  those  who  were 
discomfited  by  him  without  lacerated  feelings.  In- 
deed, generally  men  became  his  better  friends  after 
their  differences  with  him.  He  once  said  to  me  that 
he  attributed  the  best  success  of  his  life  to  his  ability 
to  control  men  without  requiring  them  to  feel  it.  His 
efficiency  in  managing  the  great  trusts  he  had  held 
he  traced  to  the  facts  that  he  always  treated  his 
subordinates  as  his  friends;  always  personally  re- 
ceived them  as  his  equals,  just  as  far  as  they  would 
allow  him  to  do  so ;  and  that  he  tried  his  best  to 
deal  justly  with  men,  in  every  condition  of  life. 

Mr.  Dickson  continued  to  hold  his  double  trust  in 
the  complex  position  as  president  of  the  manufact- 
uring company  and  coal  superintendent  of  the  Dela- 
ware and  Hudson  Company  up  to  the  first  of  May, 
1867,  when  the  business  of  both  companies  had  so 
enlarged  that  the  burden  of  responsibility  became 


58  Thomas  Dickson. 

too  great,  he  was  persuaded,  for  a  single  admin- 
istration. He  had  associated  with  him  those  who 
had  become  fully  prepared  to  take  up  his  work 
for  the  manufacturing  company ;  and  therefore  he 
resigned  his  office  as  president  of  that  company  in 
favor  of  his  brother,  George  L.  Dickson,  who  had 
proved  himself  entirely  worthy  of  the  trust.  He 
continued  in  the  Board  of  Directors,  and  kept  his 
stock  and  interest  with  the  company  as  long  as  he 
lived.  He  now  became  fairly  enlisted  and  fully  iden- 
tified with  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company.  He 
established  the  offices  of  the  company  in  Scran- 
ton,  in  due  time,  on  the  adjoining  square  to  that 
occupied  by  the  manufacturing  company's  shops. 
The  railway  was  built  from  Carbondale  to  Scranton, 
with  branch  roads  and  tracks  to  all  the  breakers  of 
the  company,  as  soon  as  these  were  completed.  A 
new  road  was  also  constructed,  as  a  branch  from 
Green  Ridge,  to  connect  with  the  Lehigh  and  Sus- 
quehanna, and  the  Jersey  Central,  at  Wilkes- Barre. 
To  serve  the  best  interests  of  this  great  corporation 
now  became  the  prime  object  of  Mr.  Dickson's  life. 

As  soon  as  he  concluded  to  make  Scranton  his 
home,  he  began  to  identify  himself  also  with  the 
interests  of  the  young  city,  both  in  a  social  and  busi- 
ness way.  He  united  with  the  most  energetic  busi- 
ness men,  and  the  best  citizens,  in  the  effort  to 
provide  the  city  with  all  necessary  public  institu- 
tions, Christian  and  moral,  as  well  as  with  such  as 


Organizing  Power.  59 

might  concentrate  capital  and  facilitate  business. 
On  the  20th  of  September,  1863,  in  company  with 
half  a  dozen  other  leading  citizens,  he  united  in 
organizing  the  "  First  National  Bank  of  Scranton," 
which  has  proved,  throughout  a  period  of  more  than 
twenty-five  years,  one  of  the  most  successful  institu- 
tions of  its  kind  in  the  country.  Mr.  Dickson  con- 
tinued in  its  board  of  directors  as  long  as  he  lived. 
By  his  conservative  force,  and  justice  in  dealing,  he 
endeared  himself  to  all  his  associates  in  this  enter- 
prise, and  did  much  toward  determining  its  business 
character. 

On  the  2 2d  of  April,  1865,  he  also  associated 
himself  with  a  number  of  gentlemen  of  the  city  in 
organizing  another  industry  in  the  valley,  which  was 
destined  to  become  one  of  the  institutions  of  the 
country.  This  was  the  "  Moosic  Powder  Company," 
the  special  reason  for  the  organization  of  which  was, 
no  doubt,  found  in  the  enormous  amount  of  blasting- 
powder  necessary  to  be  used  for  mining  purposes 
in  the  valley.  As  one  of  the  founders  of  this  enter- 
prise, Mr.  Dickson  continued  in  its  board  of  direct- 
ors throughout  his  life.  This  industry  has  pros- 
pered for  many  years,  and  continues  to  increase  its 
product  and  enlarge  its  market.  The  clearness  of 
Mr.  Dickson's  foresight  and  his  sterling  business 
ability  might  be  reasonably  inferred  from  the  more 
than  ordinary  success  of  the  business  organizations 
in  which  he  was  an  actor  or  leader,  and  from  the 


60  Thomas  Dickson. 

abundant  and  lasting  fruits  of  their  enterprise. 
There  were  many  of  these  with  whose  initiation 
he  was  identified,  which  were  more  or  less  success- 
ful. Indeed,  as  a  general  thing,  those  of  them  which 
were  farthest  removed  from  his  influence  proved 
the  most  hazardous  and  the  least  successful.  As  he 
rose  in  his  business  position,  and  his  characteristics 
became  more  widely  known,  he  was  chosen  to  one 
directorship  after  another  in  the  great  organiza- 
tions for  business  in  New -York  and  Scranton. 
Some  he  accepted  and  some  declined ;  but  the  great 
service  of  his  life  was  given  to  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson  Canal  Company  until  he  became  almost  its 
embodiment  as  well  as  representative  in  the  public 
mind. 

After  seven  years'  service  as  general  superin- 
tendent of  this  corporation  he  was  elected  its  vice- 
president  in  1867.  Two  years  later,  in  the  summer 
of  1869,  he  was  chosen  its  president.  In  this  office 
he  continued  through  more  than  fifteen  years,  and 
only  vacated  it  at  the  summons  of  the  Angel  of 
Death. 

Thus  for  almost  twenty-five  years  of  full  and 
active  service  in  the  three  highest  places  of  trust  in 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  this  boy 
of  the  mine-sweep  with  its  unruly  mule,  gave  to 
the  great  corporation  his  energy,  his  genius,  and 
ability,  and  he  died  beloved  by  all  who  worked  with 
him  or  under  his  direction.      The  estimate  of  his 


Organizing  Power,  61 

associates  in  the  directorship,  and  of  the  stock- 
holders, of  his  character,  both  as  a  counselor  and  a 
man,  will  be  perpetuated  to  his  family  in  the  papers 
placed  upon  the  records  of  the  company,  some  of 
which  will  be  incorporated  in  this  memorial. 


IV. 


HIS    HOME    AND     HUMOR HUSBAND,     FATHER, 

FRIEND SOCIAL    LIFE. 


IT  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  not  proposed 
to  write  any  adequate  record  of  the  acts  and 
business  schemes  of  this  successful  father  and  friend. 
It  is  not  intended,  in  any  proper  sense,  to  present  or 
preserve  a  view  of  the  material  harvests  of  his  sow- 
ing. We  are  not  able  to  trace  the  manifold  results 
of  the  forces  which  he  set  in  operation  in  his  more 
than  ordinary  business  career.  It  is  the  man  and 
brother,  with  his  clear  head  and  true  heart,  which 
we  are  seeking  to  embalm  in  his  household  and 
among  the  circle  of  his  friends  and  associates.  His 
business  career  and  his  great  enterprises  are  sup- 
posed to  be  useful   in  this  direction  only  in  so  far 


62 


Home  Life.  63 

as  they  reveal  his  genius,  for  clear  apprehension, 
and  his  manly  rectitude  of  character;  only  in  so  far 
as  they  intelligently  illustrate  his  success  and  his  life 
of  honest  justice,  or  reveal  his  great  heart  of  gen- 
erous benevolence  toward  men  of  all  conditions. 
What  he  did  for  himself,  for  his  family,  for  his  asso- 
ciates, and  for  the  world  at  large,  shows  him  to  have 
been  worthy  of  the  greatest  honors  and  the  tender- 
est  remembrance  his  posterity  can  ever  give  him. 

But  it  is  in  the  home,  the  social  and  religious  life  of 
the  man,  that  we  discover  the  most  precious  charac- 
teristics, which  ought  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  this 
home-made  and  loving  character.  About  the  time 
when  young  Thomas  Dickson  came  out  a  full-fledged 
clerk  in  the  Carbondale  store,  and  began  to  try  his 
talents  in  debating  clubs  and  literary  societies,  he 
started  to  win  his  position  in  the  social  life  of  the 
young  people.  The  winter  singing-schools  offered 
just  the  field  for  his  enterprise,  for  there  was  real 
music  in  his  soul,  although  a  music  which  could 
hardly  be  set  to  the  peculiar  square  notes  of  the 
music-books  then  in  use.  During  the  recesses  and 
breathing-spells  of  this  semi-social  and  semi-musical 
soiree  young  Dickson  was  accustomed  to  bring  out 
his  best  parts  in  social  episodes  to  the  music,  for  the 
refreshment  of  the  girls.  Just  for  the  fun,  he  exer- 
cised himself  in  the  effort  to  carry  off  the  most 
sprightly  lass  who  happened  to  have  company  whom 
he  judged  not  exactly  to  her  liking.     It  gave  quite 


64  Thomas  Dickson, 

a  zest  to  the  life  of  the  settlement  to  witness  these 
contests  of  gallantry  between  the  young  men.  The 
community  thought  it  no  harm  to  laugh  over  the 
discomforts  of  the  spruce  young  man  who  had  set- 
tled himself  under  a  profound  conviction  that  a 
certain  young  lady  only  waited  the  crook  of  his 
elbow  to  allow  him  to  exhibit  his  proficiency  in 
gallantry,  when  he  found,  after  he  begun  to  crook 
that  elbow,  the  smiling  miss  was  decidedly  leaning 
toward  the  rollicking  clerk  of  the  village  drug-store. 
To  "cut  out"  somebody,  as  it  was  called,  was  better 
to  Thomas  than  the  rhythm  of  song,  and  to  take 
home  some  "  other  fellow's  girl  "  afforded  the  appro- 
priate music  for  his  step. 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  this  kind  of  harmless  mis- 
chief that  Thomas  found  his  destiny  at  last.  In  one  of 
these  scouting  adventures  he  snatched  from  the  ap- 
proach of  a  young  man,  who  had  been  foolish  enough 
to  make  public  his  intentions,  the  sprightly  young 
daughter  of  Deacon  Marvine.  The  name  of  this 
young  lady  was  Mary  Augusta,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  Roswell  E.  Marvine  and  Sophia  Raymond.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Marvine  were  known  as  two  of  the  most 
devoted  and  consistent  Christians  in  all  the  valley. 
They  were  natives  of  the  State  of  New-York,  and 
had  moved  into  the  valley  about  the  time  the  work 
of  coal-mining  began.  Mr.  Marvine  soon  became 
one  of  the  trusted  agents  of  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Company.     He  was  chosen  a  ruling  elder  in  the 


Home  Life.  65 

Presbyterian  Church,  and  his  excellent  wife  became 
the  leader  in  the  Christian  society  of  the  community. 
They  were  blessed  with  five  children,  all  of  whom 
afterward  reached  stations  of  influence  and  Christian 
efficiency.  The  eldest  girl  of  this  excellent  household, 
which  was  known  for  fifty  years  as  a  leading  family 
in  the  valley,  was  this  Mary  Augusta,  whom  Thomas 
Dickson  approached  at  the  breaking-up  of  the  sing- 
ing-class and  offered  himself  as  a  substitute  of  some 
worthy  young  man  whom  he  thought  not  quite  good 
enough  for  her.  She  accepted  his  gallantry  for  rea- 
sons best  known  to  herself,  and  on  the  walk  home- 
ward the  congeniality  of  spirit  seemed  so  complete, 
and  the  fitness  of  things  so  surprisingly  natural,  that 
Dickson  ever  afterward  maintained  that  it  was  dur- 
ing this  same  walk  that  he  determined  to  win  the 
girl's  heart  and  marry  her  sometime  if  he  could.  It 
seems,  too,  that  Miss  Mary  could  think  of  no  vital 
objection  to  this  scheme  of  the  young  man  if  he 
should  conclude  to  undertake  it. 

Mary  Marvine  was  a  very  sprightly,  amiable  girl, 
endowed  with  as  many  Christian  virtues  and  maid- 
enly excellencies  as  could  be  desired.  Domestic  in 
her  tastes,  and  uniformly  amiable  in  temper,  she  was 
thought  in  the  village  society  to  be  possessed  of 
all  the  virtues  of  that  womanhood  which  promises 
to  make  a  man's  home  blessed.  Her  whole  future 
proved  that  these  prophecies  were  certainly  true. 
At  the  age  of  fourteen  years  she  united  with  the 


66  Thomas  Dickson, 

Presbyterian  Church  by  profession  of  faith,  and 
through  all  the  years  of  her  consistent  after-life  she 
has  proved  the  sincerity  of  her  profession.  It  was  a 
striking  incident  that  Thomas  Dickson  and  his  sis- 
ters united  with  the  same  church  on  the  same  day 
with  Mary  Augusta  Marvine.  Before  these  two  had 
any  thoughts  of  uniting  their  hearts  and  destinies 
for  the  pilgrimage  of  life,  they  had  begun  their 
Christian  walk  together.  Miss  Marvine  was  between 
sixteen  and  seventeen  years  of  age  when  young 
Dickson  began  his  attacks  upon  the  citadel  of  her 
heart.  The  result  was  a  foregone  conclusion  among 
their  friends  from  the  beginning,  and  the  suitable- 
ness of  the  match  was  generally  acknowledged,  and 
nobody  knew  how  to  prevent  it  if  it  had  been  other- 
wise. On  the  31st  day  of  August,  1846,  when  she 
was  barely  twenty-one,  and  he  not  yet  twenty-three, 
Thomas  Dickson  and  Mary  Marvine  were  united  in 
marriage,  bearing  with  them  into  the  new  life  the 
best  wishes  of  a  host  of  friends  and  the  respect  of  a 
whole  community.  They  immediately  set  up  their 
housekeeping  in  a  humble  way  in  a  rented  house 
in  Carbondale.  From  the  beginning  Mr.  Dickson 
manifested  his  domestic  tastes  as  well  as  his  ability 
to  make  his  home  cheerful  and  happy.  The  little 
house  became  a  rendezvous  of  the  best  young  society, 
and  Dickson's  cheerful  ways  and  fun-loving  dispo- 
sition was  allowed  its  full  play,  sometimes  to  the 
amusement  of  his  nearest  neighbors.     Even  the  few 


Home  Life.  67 

moments  of  the  noon  hour,  which  the  young  husband 
snatched  from  his  work,  were  filled  with  shouts  of 
laughter  in  the  home  where  the  young  wife  found 
her  special  enjoyment  in  those  arts  and  cares  that 
make  a  home  delightful.  Their  life  was  so  full  of  love 
and  interest  to  themselves  and  to  their  associates 
that  those  who  met  Dickson  in  his  home  scarcely 
ever  thought  of  him  as  a  man  burdened  with  great 
schemes  or  responsibilities. 

He  never  carried  into  his  home  any  of  his  business 
cares.  This  rule  he  followed  throughout  his  busy  life. 
His  wife  even  yet  says  that  she  can  recall  but  a  single 
instance  when  the  immense  burden  of  his  business 
was  not  left  entirely  at  the  office; — but  one  instance 
when  he  was  actually  kept  by  the  cares  of  that  busi- 
ness from  his  usual  peaceful  sleep.  That  was  the  time 
when  his  associates  in  business  seemed  to  have  lost 
both  their  faith  and  courage.  He  felt  that  he  stood 
alone  with  the  night  of  disaster  closed  about  him. 
He  had  pledged  his  entire  fortune  in  the  faith  that 
the  company,  for  whose  character  he  stood,  would 
be  able  to  weather  the  storm  of  the  financial  disas- 
ter which  was  working  ruin  of  business  trusts  every- 
where. When  he  closed  his  office  and  turned  his  steps 
homeward,  as  long  as  he  had  good  health,  he  seemed  to 
gather  mental  elasticity  and  vivacity  as  he  approached 
his  family.  By  the  time  he  had  reached  his  door 
he  was  all  ready  to  quiz  his  wife,  or  astonish  his  chil- 
dren with  his  preposterous  pleasantries,  which  opened 


6&  Thomas  Dickson. 

their  young  eyes  with  wonder  —  pleasantries  he  had 
invented  with  the  aid  of  his  fruitful  imagination. 

Genuine  Christian  hospitality  became  the  expres- 
sion of  his  home,  whether  it  was  the  little  cottage 
kept  with  careful  economy,  or  the  great  house  in 
which  luxury  glorified  the  success  of  honest  business, 
in  all  the  loving  life  of  this  husband  and  wife  to- 
gether. They  seemed  most  happy  when  they  were 
sharing  the  good  cheer  of  their  home  with  their 
friends  of  all  conditions  of  life.  They  spent  a  re- 
spectable fortune  in  the  expenses  of  their  free  hos- 
pitality, and  in  it  all  there  was  never  a  suspicion  of 
vanity.  Success  in  life  awoke  no  spirit  of  vanity,  in 
either  husband  or  wife,  who  had  so  cheerfully  walked 
the  paths  of  poverty  and  rigid  economy  together. 
Experience,  in  which  the  enjoyment  of  prosperous 
life  and  the  ability  to  gratify  their  own  tastes  by  the 
increase  of  income,  had  indeed  taught  them  the  real 
value  of  money ;  but  it  brought  them  no  temptation 
to  start  upon  that  way  of  economy  whose  goal  is 
narrow  meanness,  which  is  called  "  the  charity  which 
begins  at  home."  The  husband  and  wife  were  always 
one  in  the  conduct  and  enjoyments  of  their  home- 
life  and  its  hospitality.  Rich  and  poor,  the  refined 
and  the  uncultivated,  when  they  crossed  the  thresh- 
old of  Thomas  Dickson's  dwelling  found  neither  the 
spirit  nor  the  conventional  forms  which  might  sug- 
gest to  honest  souls  the  possibility  of  intrusion.  His 
wife  used  to  tell,  as  an  offset  to  some  of  his  innumer- 


Home  Life.  69 

able  drives,  when  he  attempted  to  tease  her  about 
her  personal  tastes  toward  certain  people,  a  story 
which  illustrates  his  native  sympathy  with  humanity 
and  his  real  democracy  in  spite  of  himself.  He  was 
affected  with  the  almost  universal  social  prejudice  of 
Americans  against  the  colored  race.  Now  and  then 
he  essayed  earnest  argument  with  his  wife  on  that 
subject.  His  wife  had  inherited  from  her  father  that 
broad  humanity  which  finds  no  ground  for  disrespect 
in  the  mere  color  of  the  African's  skin.  Now  and 
then  she  would  threaten  to  invite  a  colored  man  or 
woman  from  their  neighborhood  to  dine  with  the 
family.  He  used  to  answer,  "Well,  '  guid  wife/  you 
may  invite  them,  and  eat  with  them,  if  you  feel  called 
to  do  so.  You  may  give  them  the  best  you  have, 
and  I  shall  be  happy ;  but  I  will  wait  patiently  until 
they  are  all  through.  Or,  if  it  will  be  more  conven- 
ient, I  will  eat  in  the  kitchen,  and  they  shall  have 
the  best  of  the  house ;  but  eat  with  a  negro  I 
never  can, — at  least,  not  until  he  grows  white  and 
loses  his  odor."  At  length,  one  day  Mrs.  Dickson 
was  more  than  surprised  to  see  her  husband  bring 
home  with  him,  upon  an  invitation  to  dinner,  one  of 
the  darkest  of  the  race,  in  his  working-clothes.  She 
remonstrated,  of  course,  with  great  earnestness,  with 
the  fun  dancing  about  her  eyes ;  but  he  protested 
"this  was  no  ordinary  negro.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  honest,  real  white  men  he  had  met  with  in 
years " ;  and  he  insisted  that  he  should  be   placed 


70  Thomas  Dickson, 

next  to  his  host,  and  make  the  children  wait  if  they 
did  not  like  it.  She  mentioned  the  possible  odor 
which  she  feared  might  interfere  with  the  comfort  of 
his  dinner.  But  he  insisted  that  so  godly  and  honest 
a  man  as  this  could  have  no  odor  about  him  that  a 
true  Christian  should  object  to.  In  fact,  he  thought 
him  simply  a  colored  Scotchman.  The  family,  of 
course,  complied  with  his  wishes  with  a  suppressed 
pleasure  which  was  highly  spiced  to  them  by  the  an- 
ticipated privilege  of  the  advantage  he  had  afforded, 
and  which  they  should  not  be  slow  to  use  in  their 
spars  and  drives  with  him  in  their  future  discussions 
of  this  colored  question.  But  henceforth  he  never 
alluded  to  the  subject  voluntarily  except  to  frankly 
acknowledge,  when  reminded  of  his  weakness  in 
company,  that  once  in  his  married  life  his  wife  had 
got  the  better  of  him  ;  and  he  said  he  could  see  no 
reason  why  she  should  not,  when  she  had  been  so 
unfair  as  to  train  all  her  children  to  help  her.  His 
ability  to  free  himself  from  difficulties  and  uncom- 
fortable positions,  whether  in  social  or  business  life, 
was  as  striking  as  the  sharpness  and  wisdom  of  his 
care  to  avoid  them.  He  was  seldom  nonplused  by 
an  opponent,  and  if  he  were,  he  did  not  forget  it,  but 
good-naturedly  " bided  his  time"  until  the  opportu- 
nity of  balancing  accounts  came  to  him. 

As  soon  as  it  was  determined  to  establish  the 
Dickson  Manufacturing  Company  at  Scranton,  Mr. 
Dickson  decided  to  move  to  that  place  and  identify 


Home  Life.  71 

himself  with  the  growing  interests  of  that  young 
city.  Here,  in  the  autumn  of  1857,  he  purchased  a 
house,  which  was  then  new,  but  which  since  has 
been  greatly  enlarged  and  improved,  and  which  still 
stands  at  the  corner  of  Washington  avenue  and  Vine 
street.  This  house  for  more  than  twenty  years  has 
been  known  as  the  Albright  residence,  the  house 
in  which  Joseph  J.  Albright,  Mr.  Dickson's  choice 
friend,  lived  and  died.  Into  this  house  Mr.  Dickson 
moved  as  soon  as  he  had  established  the  machine- 
shop,  a  little  more  than  a  square  away  from  it.  In 
this  house  some  of  his  children  were  born,  and  the 
family  became  attached  to  it  by  many  happy  asso- 
ciations ;  but  it  was  too  small  for  Mr.  Dickson's 
enlarging  hospitality  and  increased  responsibilities; 
and  especially  too  limited  to  meet  the  necessities  of 
his  growing  family.  He  lived  here  for  five  years, 
during  which  time  he  built  his  large  and  luxurious 
residence  on  the  adjoining  grounds.  This  house, 
which  he  built  on  Washington  avenue,  has  stood  for 
years  as  one  of  the  beautiful  homes  of  the  city. 
One  of  Mr.  Dickson's  chief  reasons  for  building  was 
the  want  of  room  for  improvements  of  his  family 
home  which  time  might  demand,  and  especially  want 
of  grounds  for  the  exercise  of  his  taste  in  landscape 
gardening,  which  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  be- 
came a  solace  and  a  luxury  in  which  he  delighted. 
On  the  Christmas  day  of  1862,  when  the  country 
was  in  its  great  struggle  to  subdue  the  slaveholders' 


72  Thomas  Dickson. 

rebellion  and  save  the  Union,  the  family  moved  into 
this,  the  only  house  which  he  ever  built  for  himself. 
From  time  to  time  he  enlarged  and  improved  it,  and 
now  and  then  lived  in  other  places,  but  it  was  always 
considered  the  family  home.  Here  Thomas  Dickson 
set  up  his  Penates  and  sanctified  his  home  life  with 
his  family  altar.  This  was  the  home  which  he  filled 
with  the  choice  treasures  of  his  taste,  and  crystallized 
them  all  with  his  peaceful  family  history.  From  this 
family  altar,  fortified  by  a  Christian  mother's  care, 
his  children  went  and  came,  threading  the  ways  of 
their  liberal  education.  Its  shadows  were  made 
sacred  by  the  members  of  the  family  circle  who 
grew  weary  and  left  it  for  "the  rest  that  remain- 
eth."  From  its  threshold  went  forth  the  grown-up 
children,  with  their  fathers  benediction;  held  in 
the  bonds  of  that  new  life  which  breaks  and  forever 
enlarges  the  family  circle.  Innumerable  remem- 
brances of  the  happy  household  are  treasured  within 
these  walls,  within  its  halls  and  airy  chambers.  But 
among  all  its  precious  treasures  there  remains  the 
one  figure — the  husband,  the  father,  and  friend,  for- 
ever the  most  precious  and  sacred  to  those  who 
remain  on  earth. 

The  later  years  of  his  life,  after  his  children  were 
married  or  had  scattered,  the  pressure  of  business 
compelled  Mr.  Dickson  to  reside  for  part  of  the  year 
near  to  the  headquarters  of  the  company,  in  New- 
York.     Some  winters  he  consequently  spent  in  hotel 


Home  Life.  73 

life,  always  occupying  the  same  rooms  at  the  Gilsey 
Hotel,  where  he  was  inseparable  from  his  wife. 
While  here  he  exercised  his  hospitality  as  best  he 
could;  but  growing  weary  of  this  kind  of  life,  he 
followed  his  home  tastes,  and  purchased  a  beautiful 
residence  at  Morristown,  N.  J.,  with  its  adjoining 
grounds  of  fifty  acres,  more  or  less.  This  he  called 
his  Jersey  farm,  and  in  nothing  did  he  ever  find  a 
way  so  fully  to  gratify  his  taste,  or  to  enjoy  the 
peace  and  comfort  of  his  home-life,  as  when  he 
walked  or  rested  among  its  flowers  and  magnificent 
trees.  He  never  seemed  more  happy  than  when 
pointing  out  the  pictures  of  peaceful  beauty  to  the 
multitude  of  his  appreciative  friends  who  perpetually 
gathered  about  him.  His  friends  and  associates  all 
reached  the  one  conclusion,  that  whatever  might  be 
Thomas  Dickson's  grasp  of  mind,  or  his  power  to 
mold  men  and  control  business,  his  special  endow- 
ment was  his  ability  to  create  and  beautify  a  Chris- 
tian home  upon  earth.  Along  with  this  was  the 
power  to  tie  humanity  to  himself  and  his  house- 
hold with  the  bands  of  intelligent,  generous  affection 
and  lasting  friendship.  With  the  warm  heart  and 
straightforwardness  of  the  child  he  blended  the 
truthfulness  of  the  just  man  in  all  his  home  life  as 
well  as  in  his  business.  Hence  it  is  that  most  of  his 
friends  remember  him  not  specially  as  a  great  and 
successful  man  of  business,  who  by  the  versatility  of 
his  genius  and  patience  of  his  industry  arose  from 


74  Thomas  Dickson. 

the  narrow  life  of  poverty  and  uneducated  youth  to 
win  a  magnificent  fortune  single-handed,  and  make 
a  place  for  himself  among  gentlemen  and  scholars  of 
the  best  station  on  earth;  but  rather  as  the  husband, 
the  father,  the  citizen,  and  friend,  walking  among 
the  flowers  which  he  planted  as  if  he  had  been  born 
there.  He  never  seemed  so  great  and  good  as  when 
giving  his  time  to  eliciting  and  enjoying  the  wonder 
of  his  grandchildren  who  clung  to  him.  The  real 
manhood  of  the  successful  president  was  most  con- 
spicuous as  he  sat  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree 
to  entertain  and  enjoy  the  converse  of  the  number- 
less friends  who  had  learned  the  way  to  his  heart 
through  the  loving  hospitality  of  his  beautiful  home. 
It  was  Dickson  the  Man,  the  Brother,  rather  than 
Dickson  the  President  and  broad-gauged  man  of 
business,  that  had  made  for  himself  a  place  in  the 
hearts  of  the  men  of  his  generation.  Yet  there 
were  few  men  of  his  generation  who  ever  carried 
heavier  business  schemes  to  such  certain  and  perma- 
nent success.  It  was  his  chief  excellence  that  he 
never  permitted  his  business  to  swallow  up  or  sully 
his  beautiful  manhood. 


\ 


V 


RELIGIOUS    FAITH    AND    ITS    EXPRESSION. 


OF  the  religious  character  and  life  of  Thomas 
Dickson  it  remains  to  make  some  worthy 
record.  This  portion  of  his  memorial  I  approach 
with  some  hesitancy  and  diffidence,  which  arise,  not 
from  the  specific  case,  but  from  the  general  subject. 
There  can  be  no  desire  to  place  upon  this  family 
tablet  any  of  that  pious  literature  of  the  cemetery 
which  certainly  is  apt  rather  to  preserve  pictures  of 
the  living  than  excellences  of  the  dead.  It  is  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  record  justly  and  truthfully  the  Chris- 
tian character  of  a  brother  who  has  gone  to  his 
account.  We  cannot  speak  of  that  character  as  we 
could  if  he  were  present  to  modify  or  protest.  But 
if  any  man  is  able  to  make  a  fair  record  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  or  of  the  religious  life  and  character  of  this 


75 


j6  Thomas  Dickson. 

man,  it  would  seem  that  the  writer  of  this  memorial 
ought  to  be  able  to  do  so.  During  the  last  sixteen 
years  of  his  life,  in  his  private  intercourse,  he  was 
accustomed  to  recognize  him  as  his  pastor  as  well 
as  friend. 

Yet  there  is  so  much  in  the  intercourse  of  a  Pres- 
byterian Christian  and  his  pastor  which  contains 
in  it  heart-history,  ever  to  be  held  sacred,  that  no 
account  could  be  honest  or  full  which  records  relig- 
ious life  or  convictions  as  fully  known  between  them. 
There  is  a  vast  deal  of  personal  experience  which 
can  never  be  brought  to  the  light  of  the  world. 
Then,  too,  there  is  so  much  in  the  burdens  and  trials 
of  a  busy  public  life  to  interfere  with  that  which 
Christians  are  wont  to  conceive  as  the  only  consist- 
ent exhibition  of  what  they  call  religion,  that  it  is 
difficult  for  a  conscientious  pastor  to  give  even  his 
own  clear  judgment  of  the  spiritual  life  or  Christian 
excellence  of  his  friend.  The  world  and  Christians 
have  such  different  standards  of  judgment,  and  the 
best  men  have  so  dim  a  perception  of  the  true  excel- 
lences of  Christian  character  and  the  worthy  propor- 
tions of  Christian  zeal,  that  it  becomes  perplexing 
even  to  attempt  to  draw  a  positive  picture  of  one 
which  may  satisfy  the  outside  world  and  do  strict 
justice  to  the  subject. 

But  this  we  can  say,  and  be  sure  that  the  Chris- 
tian world  who  knew  him  will  both  understand  and 
fully  appreciate  it:  Thomas  Dickson's  religion  was 


Religious  Faith,  jj 

a  life  which  was  founded  and  built  upon  what  is 
understood  as  the  evangelical  orthodox  foundation. 
It  was  a  grand  principle  running  through  his  modes 
of  thought,  his  pious  meditations,  and  his  business 
activity  alike.  He  was  neither  in  his  business  nor 
his  religious  life  subject  to  moods  of  either  ecstatic 
feeling,  or  spasmodic  activity.  His  Christian  life  and 
virtues  blended  so  naturally  with  his  daily  dealings 
with  men,  that  he  seemed  never  to  step  into  a  new 
atmosphere,  or  change  his  step,  for  the  performance 
of  religious  duties.  He  was  subject  to  no  periods  of 
doubt  and  dullness  of  spiritual  apprehension,  nor  to 
spasmodic  acts  of  piety  in  order  to  heal  soul-bruises 
arising  from  an  irreligious  worldly  conformity. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  years  he  gave  his  heart  to 
his  Saviour,  just  as  his  parents  had  taught  him  he 
should,  and  in  a  time  of  special  religious  interest  in 
the  community  on  the  subject  of  religion,  he  took 
his  place,  with  many  of  his  young  companions,  in  the 
Carbondale  Presbyterian  Church,  upon  the  profes- 
sion of  his  faith.  From  that  day,  we  will  be  safe  in 
the  conclusion  that  he  never  once  thought  of  taking 
back,  or  modifying,  or  of  denying  his  confession  of 
Christ.  It  was  a  hearty  and  true  confession.  He 
never  became  what  we  would  call  an  aggressive 
Christian ;  perhaps  with  his  special  endowments  and 
life  associates  he  could  not  have  been  ;  but  his  clear 
conception  of  the  method  of  grace,  and  his  final  set- 
tlement of  the  great  questions  of  the  soul's  salvation, 


78  Thomas  Dickson, 

left  him  with  few  anxieties  in  regard  to  his  relation 
to  God  with  which  his  life  might  be  clouded.  For  a 
time  he  once  became  entangled  with  the  discipline 
of  his  church  upon  the  vexing  and  never-settled 
question  of  youthful  and  social  amusements.  On 
this  subject  he  and  the  Carbondale  Session  could 
never  agree ;  but  with  a  manly,  Christian  spirit  he 
maintained  his  position,  which  his  best  friends  be- 
lieved to  be  right ;  and  he  patiently  waited  until  the 
views  of  the  Church  itself  brought  him  out  fairly  into 
the  light.  He  was  a  supporter  of  the  Church  in 
every  possible  way,  and  brought  up  his  family  to 
venerate  all  its  institutions  as  well  as  to  bear  its 
burdens  with  a  manly  honesty,  which  he  never  could 
call  generosity  or  benevolence,  but  simply  Christian 
duty.  The  proper  expenses  of  the  Church  to  his 
mind  never  came  under  the  head  of  benevolence ; 
and  if  he  ever  failed  in  his  patience  toward  his 
fellow- Christians  at  all,  it  was  toward  those  who 
delayed  or  neglected  to  do  their  duty  in  the  bearing 
of  church  burdens. 

Through  his  whole  life  Mr.  Dickson  was  connected 
by  membership  with  only  three  churches.  The  Car- 
bondale Presbyterian  Church,  of  which  both  his 
father  and  his  father-in-law  were  ruling  elders,  was 
the  one  where  he  confessed  his  Lord.  After  years 
of  connection  with  it,  he  transferred  his  membership 
to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scranton,  after 
he  moved  to  that  city.     In  this  church  he  early  be- 


Religious  Faith.  79 

came  a  leader,  and  remained  in  its  communion  until 
it  was  found  wise  to  send  out  a  colony  for  the  found- 
ing of  a  new  organization  in  the  growing  city.  He 
was  appealed  to  to  become  the  leader  of  this  colony. 
In  this  movement  he  hesitated,  believing  it  to  be 
premature.  But  after  receiving  the  assurance  from 
his  pastor  and  friend  of  his  judgment  that  he  ought 
to  lead  the  enterprise,  and  after  extracting  from  this 
pastor  the  promise  that  the  bonds  of  friendship  and 
of  pastoral  association  should  never  be  weakened  or 
broken  by  his  new  church  life,  he  consented  to  go 
with  the  colony  to  form  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scranton.  In  this  organization  he  re- 
mained a  leader  and  the  largest  contributor  until  he 
entered  the  Church  of  the  first-born,  whose  names 
are  written  in  Heaven.  In  this  church  he  proposed 
to  give  one-tenth  of  all  that  was  necessary  to  be 
raised  for  the  church  building  or  for  benevolent  pur- 
poses. The  organ  in  this  church,  presented  by  his 
widow,  bears  his  name  upon  its  front,  and  stands 
before  the  church  his  perpetual  memorial. 

His  association  with  the  brethren  in  all  his 
church  life  was  happy,  being  always  without  the 
suspicion  of  arrogance,  or  any  demand  of  recogni- 
tion, because  of  either  his  wealth  or  his  business 
position.  He  was  but  a  member  in  the  church  in 
all  his  association  with  God's  people,  and  asked  for 
no  higher  place. 

Wherever  Mr.  Dickson  remained  for  a  time,  either 


80  Thomas  Dickson. 

in  his  summer  vacations  or  winter  work,  he  identi- 
fied himself  with  some  congregation  of  evangelical 
Christians,  and  became  more  or  less  intimate  with 
the  pastors  ;  and  many  a  country  church  and  pastor 
felt  the  benevolent  power  of  his  sojourn.  When  in 
the  city  of  New  York  he  always  held  a  seat  in  one 
or  more  churches,  and  became  intimate  with  their 
pastors.  During  two  or  three  years  he  held  a  pew 
in  the  Reformed  Church.  His  friend  Dr.  Ormiston, 
a  brother  Scotchman,  was  the  pastor.  With  this 
pastor  he  heartily  associated  through  all  the  later 
years  of  his  life,  and  he  had  no  dearer  friend  or 
warmer  admirer.  When  he  took  possession  of  his 
home  at  Morristown  he  identified  himself  with  the 
church  of  which  Dr.  Erdman  was  the  pastor,  and 
while  still  retaining  his  membership  in  the  Second 
Church  of  Scranton,  he  was  ever  recognized  in 
Morristown  actively  interested  in  their  church  work. 
Dr.  Wm.  C.  Cattell,  for  years  the  President  of  La- 
fayette College,  was  for  years  recognized  as  one 
of  Mr.  Dickson's  most  intimate  friends.  He  and 
Dr.  Erdman,  together  with  Dr.  Ormiston  and  his 
old  friend  and  pastor  in  Scranton,  found  the  Dickson 
residence  the  home  of  a  parishioner.  At  his  death 
these  four  ministers  of  Christ  mourned  for  him  as  for 
a  brother. 

He  seemed  really  to  have  had  few  if  any  temp- 
tations to  exercise  himself  with  questions  of  a 
speculative  faith;    nor  did  he  have  very  profound 


Religious  Faith.  81 

convictions  of  the  importance  of  any  logical  system 
of  theology.  His  piety  was  never  expressed  in 
theological  terms,  nor  was  it  manifestly  molded  into 
a  dependence  upon  forms  of  worship.  In  a  word, 
his  religion  was  to  be  found  in  his  life — adorned  by 
his  exercise  of  the  Christian  virtues  of  justice  and 
generosity  to  all.  It  was  expressed  by  his  brotherly 
kindness  and  charity,  in  his  contact  with  the  world 
under  all  circumstances.  His  piety  was  recognized 
in  the  manifest  sincerity  of  his  reverence  for  every- 
thing sacred,  and  in  his  spirit  of  humility  in  all  his 
dealings  with  God  and  with  God's  people.  His 
family  altar,  his  Sabbath  observance  and  public  wor- 
ship were  but  the  unostentatious  and  regular  fulfill- 
ment of  Christian  duty,  as  he  understood  them,  and 
apparently  as  much  so  as  the  payment  of  a  debt  or 
the  meeting  of  a  business  appointment.  His  sup- 
port of  the  church  and  his  contributions  to  church 
work  were  constant  and  generous;  and  he  usually 
aimed  to  use  his  contributions  so  as  to  make  them  a 
power  to  increase  the  benevolence  of  others.  While 
a  great  deal  of  his  benevolence  was  spontaneous, 
he  generally  gave  away  his  money  upon  Christian 
principle,  and  very  seldom  from  impulse.  He  was 
an  enlightened  friend  of  colleges  and  institutions  of 
learning ;  but  he  never  had  the  time  to  abide  long 
enough  in  a  college  atmosphere  to  become  actively 
identified  with  this  grand  power  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion.    He  always  seems  to  have  been  interested  in 


82  Thomas  Dickson. 

the  work  of  Christian  churches  in  the  community 
where  he  happened  to  live,  and  in  the  endowment 
of  Christian  institutions  wherever  he  was  brought 
into  contact  with  their  work  and  saw  their  need; 
while  he  never  became  greatly  interested  in  the 
great  work  of  missions  among  the  heathen.  His 
life  was  too  largely  concentrated,  and  too  thoroughly 
identified  with  the  opening  business  of  the  great 
country  in  which  he  lived  for  him  to  enter  fully  into 
the  spirit  of  missions  to  the  race,  as  conducted  by 
the  great  Church  he  loved. 

While  Mr.  Dickson  was  never  aggressive  as  a 
Christian  in  the  sense  of  commending  the  gospel  in 
words,  or  religious  appeals,  he  was  never  indifferent 
to  the  salvation  of  men's  souls  ;  nor  did  he  ever  hesi- 
tate to  express  his  religious  convictions  on  all  suitable 
occasions.  He  had  a  very  dear  and  life-long  friend, 
whose  bent  of  mind,  and  habits  of  thought  and  in- 
vestigation, led  him  into  the  fields  of  religious  doubt 
and  speculation,  respecting  the  Church  and  the  tenets 
of  the  Christian  faith.  Dickson's  association  with  this 
friend  was,  through  many  years,  the  most  intimate  and 
brotherly.  To  all  his  friend's  speculations  he  used  to 
answer,  with  the  same  clear  and  positive  conclusion 
which  characterized  him  in  business  propositions, 
somewhat  after  this  style :  "  My  friend,  we  know  very 
little  of  the  things  that  are  beyond  the  limits  of  our 
senses;  and  I  am  entirely  confident  that  after  we  have 


Religious  Faith.  83 

learned  all  we  can,  and  speculated  as  far  as  we  please, 
we  shall  have  to  come  back  honestly  to  the  exercise 
of  the  same  faith  in  the  Redeemer  of  mankind  which 
our  fathers  had,  and  simply  trust  in  Him  for  our  salva- 
tion, unto  all  eternity." 

His  attendance  on  public  worship  was  precisely  of 
the  same  regular  character  as  his  appearance  in  his 
place  of  business.  No  amount  of  burden  or  care,  no 
whims  of  taste  or  weakness  of  the  preaching,  were 
ever  allowed  to  prevent  his  appearance  in  God's  house 
among  the  worshipers. 

The  illustrations  of  the  decided  practical  character 
of  his  every-day  religion  are  abundantly  scattered  all 
along  the  path  of  his  Christian  life.  I  will  record  a 
single  one  which  certainly  deserves  to  be  perpet- 
uated. 

On  the  1 6th  of  November,  1873,  tne  congregation 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scranton  cele- 
brated its  twenty-fifth  anniversary.  The  exercises 
of  the  morning  were  under  the  direction  of  the  pas- 
tor, who  devoted  the  hour  to  a  historical  discourse, 
which  included  in  it  the  early  history  of  the  city  as 
well  as  of  the  church,  and  which  proved  refreshing 
to  all  the  old  citizens.  In  the  evening  the  con- 
gregation took  the  matter  into  their  own  hands. 
Papers  and  speeches  containing  reminiscences  and 
historic  gems  were  presented  by  the  laymen,  both 
old   and    young.      In   the    afternoon,    between    the 


84  Thomas  Dickson. 

morning  and  evening  services,  the  pastor  received 
the  following  note,  which  explains  itself,  and  which 
we  think  belongs  properly  to  this  memorial.  It 
was  as  follows : 


SCRANTON,  NOV.    1 6,    1 873. 

My  Dear  Doctor:  During  your  very  interesting 
review  of  the  history  of  the  church,  this  morning,  the 
thought  occurred  to  me  that  something  might  be 
done  to  give  prominence  and  abiding  interest  to  the 
occasion. 

I  suggest,  therefore,  that  an  endowment  fund  of 
$10,000  be  raised,  which  shall  be  permanently  invested 
by  the  Session  of  the  church, —  which  can  be  securely 
done  at,  say,  7  percent, —  and  that  the  income  arising 
therefrom  be  held  and  used  by  the  Session  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor  of  the  church,  and  for  no  other  pur- 
pose. The  annual  income  would  be  $700,  and  in  a 
community  like  ours  might  be  productive  of  much 
good.  While  we  are  having  a  love-feast  and  general 
shaking  of  hands,  let  us  do  something  that  will  be 
approved  by  those  who  are  to  follow  us,  and  which 
the  Master  we  profess  to  serve  enjoins —  "  take  care  of 
the  poor."  If  this  suggestion  meets  your  approval  let 
the  movement  be  initiated,  and,  if  possible,  be  com- 
pleted to-night. 

I  am  aware  that,  in  the  present  conditions  of  the 
financial  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country,  all  feel 


Religious  Faith.  85 

poor,  and  that  the  present  may  be  considered  an  in- 
opportune time;  but  the  money  will  not  be  needed  at 
once.  Let  the  subscriptions  be  made  bearing  inter- 
est at  7  per  cent,  so  that  there  may  be  immediate 
income,  and  payments  of  principal  be  made  hereafter, 
when  money  is  more  plentiful.  We  ought  to  be  will- 
ing to  incur  debt  in  such  a  cause. 

If  the  project  meets  approval,  I  will  subscribe  $1000 
provided  the  full  sum  of  $10,000  is  raised.  If  you 
think  well  of  it,  I  will  see  you  during  the  afternoon. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Rev.  S.  C.  Logan,  D.  D.  Thomas  Dickson. 


The  pastor  read  this  letter  to  the  evening  congre- 
gation, and  followed  it  with  an  address,  in  which  he 
heartily  indorsed  the  proposition  it  contained  as  both 
appropriate  and  opportune.  He  proposed  that  this 
memorial  of  God's  grace,  recorded  in  the  history  of 
the  church,  be  raised  at  once,  to  mark  this  historic 
point  in  the  life  of  this  remarkable  organization. 
This  proposition  was  at  once  accepted  by  the  people, 
and  in  a  very  few  minutes  more  than  $7000  of  the 
$10,000  proposed  was  subscribed.  Mr.  Dickson 
then  arose  and  proposed  to  increase  his  own  sub- 
scription to  $1250  if  the  amount  first  proposed  could 
be  fully  raised  that  night.  The  congregation  took 
him  at  his  word  with  a  glad  enthusiasm,  and  in  just 


86  Thomas  Dickson. 

12  minutes  from  the  time  the  subscriptions  began, 
as  indicated  by  the  pastor's  watch, —  which  he  held 
in  his  hand, —  that  subscription  was  completed,  and 
a  fund  to  provide  for  the  poor  of  the  church  was 
established  amounting  to  $10,830. 

The  pastor  then  announced  to  Mr.  Dickson  that  the 
terms  of  his  proposal  had  been  met.  He  thanked  him 
for  this  suggestion  and  his  generosity  to  the  poor,  and 
called  upon  him  to  know  if  anything  remained  to 
meet  the  conditions  of  his  own  subscription.  Mr. 
Dickson  in  an  appropriate  acknowledgment  stated 
his  reasons  for  making  his  subscription  conditional, 
through  the  hopes  of  completing  the  work  at  once 
and  having  a  monument  erected  in  the  history  of  the 
church.  He  hoped  the  subscription  would  be  left 
open,  that  none  of  the  members  might  be  deprived  of 
the  blessing  of  taking  a  part  in  this  good  work,  if 
they  should  choose  to  do  so.  He  closed  his  remarks 
with  his  subscription  of  $1250.  This  fund  for  the 
poor  was  Dickson's  pious  thought ;  and  it  was  just 
like  him.  His  piety  led  him  in  all  his  career  to  be 
mindful  of  the  poor.  With  the  poor  his  early  life 
was  associated,  and  as,  step  by  step,  he  rose,  he  car- 
ried the  poor  with  him.  Through  all  time  this  monu- 
ment of  Christian  love  will  stand,  with  its  beautiful 
proportions,  a  way-mark  in  the  work  and  history  of 
this  remarkable  church  of  Presbyterian  people.  And 
the  most  conspicuous  names  on  it,  associated  with 
those  of  the  noblest  men  and  women  recorded  in  the 


Religious  Faith.  87 

history  of  the  city,  to  be  read  by  the  Lord's  afflicted 
disciples,  are  those  of  Thomas  Dickson,  and  of  his 
wife  Mary. 

Mr.  Dickson's  benevolence  was  generous  and  with- 
out ostentation.  He  was  never  heard  to  claim  any 
sort  of  credit  for  what  he  gave,  nor  to  ask  for  any 
special  consideration  in  any  of  the  churches  where  he 
identified  himself  with  God's  people  because  of  what 
he  was  able  to  do  for  his  Lord  and  Master.  Thus 
we  ever  conceive  of  Thomas  Dickson's  religion — as 
practical,  without  the  suggestion  of  ostentation.  Its 
life-principle  was  to  be  found  in  all  his  walks  and  pur- 
suits, so  constant  and  noiseless  as  to  be  thought  sim- 
ply a  part  of  his  life's  business.  His  utter  incapacity 
for  cant,  or  pious  expression,  taken  with  his  fun-loving 
spirit  and  his  identification  or  association  with  men  of 
all  sorts,  possibly  sometimes  placed  him,  in  the  minds 
of  earnest  Christians,  as  one  possessed  of  no  great 
depth  of  religious  feelings  ;  but  his  pastor  and  friend 
ever  found,  in  the  depths  of  his  honest  life-experience, 
the  pure  gold  of  a  loving  Christian  heart.  The  testi- 
mony of  his  associates  and  co-workers  was  given  with 
singular  unanimity  to  this  fact,  when  they  recorded 
their  estimate  of  him  after  he  was  gone. 

We  can  speculate  upon  what  might  have  been  his 
power,  and  his  wider  influence  as  a  Christian  or  a 
religious  man,  if  his  environment  had  been  different ; 
or  if  he  had  consented  to  the  desire  of  the  church, 
more   than   once   expressed  to  him,   to  accept  the 


88  Thomas  Dickson. 

office  so  long  held  by  his  venerable  father.  What 
he  might  have  been  in  the  courts  and  great  schemes 
of  the  church,  had  he  become  a  ruling  elder,  we 
who  knew  him  might  reasonably  conjecture.  We 
may  imagine  that  for  many  of  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  this  office  he  was  both  richly  endowed 
and  well  adapted;  but,  doubtless  knowing  himself 
better  than  his  friends  could  know  him,  he  decided 
wisely  in  declining  all  positions  in  the  church  save 
those  of  a  sincere  and  faithful  membership.  His 
association  with  ministers  was  never  with  them  as  a 
class,  while  he  listened  with  pious  regard  to  all  of 
them,  and  with  a  catholic  spirit.  But  many  of  his 
choice  personal  friends  and  associates  were  ministers 
of  high  standing,  for  whom  he  cherished  the  affec- 
tion of  a  friend  rather  than  the  interest  of  a  parish- 
ioner. These  servants  of  God  he  has  bound  to 
himself  and  his  family  by  cords  of  love  and  precious 
remembrance  of  kindness  which  his  death  has  only 
made  more  permanent  in  their  hearts.  Such  of 
these  ministers  as  are  alive  to-day  count  it  one  of 
their  choice  blessings  in  life  that  God  gave  them  an 
intimate  association  with  Thomas  Dickson  and  his 
Christian  wife. 

Thus  I  have  tried  to  give  a  true  and  general  esti- 
mate of  the  life  and  character  of  a  man  whose  mem- 
ory must  ever  be  precious  to  those  who  knew  him, 
specially  so  to  those  who  were  bound  to  him  by  the 
ties  of  kindred  or  blood.    On  every  branch  of  the  sub- 


Religious  Faith.  89 

ject  that  has  been  considered,  whole  volumes  might 
have  been  written.  I  have  simply  attempted  to  give 
glimpses,  or  passing  shadows,  of  the  successful  busi- 
ness man  who  was,  and  must  remain,  in  the  memory 
of  his  associates  a  noble  father,  husband,  and  friend. 
There  is  presented  here  only  outlines  and  incom- 
plete figures  which  his  children  may  perfect,  in  order 
to  secure  the  remembrance  of  the  full-rounded  man, 
with  his  full-rounded  life,  who  now  rests  from  his 
labors;  while  his  life-blood  and  the  fruits  of  his 
industry  work  on  to  bring  blessing  to  their  lives 
through  the  ages.  On  each  of  these  specifications, 
facts  and  incidents  are  abundant  that  would  certainly 
be  of  interest,  and  might  be  indefinitely  multiplied 
by  his  friends.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  this 
tablet  is  only  intended  to  be  suggestive  to  that  circle 
whose  life  has  been  identified  with  his.  It  will  have 
met  its  end  if  it  shall  prove  helpful  in  recalling  and 
perpetuating  the  remembrance  of  the  many-sided 
and  graceful  endowments  that,  as  a  Christian  man, 
he  unconsciously  exhibited  to  the  circle  of  which  he 
was  the  life. 

Thomas  Dickson  never  worked  for  posthumous 
fame,  nor  thought  to  live  up  to  a  possible  obituary 
which  his  friends  might  give  him.  Weaknesses 
he  had,  but  why  should  we  remember  them  in 
our  estimate  of  his  well-poised  character  and  suc- 
cessful life.  These  weaknesses  only  endeared  him 
to  sensible  men,   because    they  were   glorified   and 


90  Thomas  Dickson. 

transmuted  by  the  excellencies  that  all  knew  to  be 
precious.  He  was  religiously  a  straightforward, 
believing  sinner,  who  assented  cordially  to  whatever 
he  recognized  as  God's  appointment;  and  with  his 
last  breath  he  expressed  his  creed  in  the  sentence,  "  It 
is  all  right."  It  now  remains  for  me  briefly  to  record 
his  declining  life,  and  the  Christian  dignity  with 
which  he  went  to  his  rest.  This,  with  some  of  the 
testimonials  and  estimates  of  character  that  were  the 
chaplets  of  affection  with  which  his  business  asso- 
ciates adorned  his  tomb,  will  complete  his  memorial. 


VI 


DECLINING    HEALTH TRAVELS   ABROAD FADES   AWAY 

PASSES   THROUGH    THE    TWILIGHT    TO 

THE    MORNING. 


MR' 


DICKSON  was  never  what  would  be  called 
a  robust  man.  Physically,  he  developed  very 
slowly  through  his  boyhood  and  youth.  Light  and 
wiry  in  his  boyhood,  he  began  life  for  himself  at  so 
early  an  age  that  he  seems  to  have  been  imbedded 
in  the  memory  of  his  early  friends  as  "Little  Tom 
Dickson."  This  impression  appears  to  have  been 
carried  forward  with  his  after-development,  and  he 
became  stereotyped  in  the  minds  of  men  gener- 
ally, perhaps,  as  below  the  standard  of  the  physical 
manhood  of  the  stalwart  generation  to  which  he 
belonged.  This,  however,  was  a  mistake.  When 
he  reached  his  manhood  he  stood  about  five  feet  ten 


91 


92  Thomas  Dickson. 

and  three-quarter  inches  in  height,  and  was  remark- 
ably straight  and  well-proportioned,  as  well  as  elastic 
in  his  carriage.  Through  the  first  half  of  his  life  he 
was  blessed  with  almost  uniform  good  health,  and 
certainly  had  great  powers  of  endurance.  A  staid 
and  indefatigable  worker,  his  life-long  habit  of  spi- 
cing his  labors  with  the  luxury  of  his  fun  seems  to 
have  rendered  his  business  life  uniformly  pleasant 
and  healthful.  He  was  able  to  pass  from  outdoor 
activity  to  office  confinement  with  the  smallest 
appearance  of  friction,  and  he  never  seemed  to  carry 
about  him  any  nervous  anxiety  or  bustle  of  business. 
His  powers  of  endurance  and  general  good  health 
seem  to  have  educated  him  to  the  neglect  of  any 
special  care  of  himself  in  this  matter.  The  multi- 
plicity of  his  business,  the  hardness  of  the  work,  and 
the  dangers  of  exposure  seem  to  have  been  seldom 
thought  of  by  himself  as  elements  to  be  considered 
in  his  decisions  concerning  the  demands  of  duty. 
The  buoyancy  of  his  nature  and  adaptability  of  his 
physical  manhood,  which  we  might  call  his  nervous 
force,  continued,  with  few  interruptions,  down  to  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1863,  when  approaching  his 
fortieth  year. 

In  the  early  part  of  January  of  that  year,  he  was 
driven  and  weighted  with  more  than  his  ordinary 
business.  In  addition  to  the  care  of  the  rapidly 
increasing  responsibilities  of  the  great  company,  of 
which  he  was  the  chief  factor,  he  was  called  upon  by 


Declining  Health,  93 

public  officials,  and  by  citizens  generally,  to  aid  in  the 
perplexities  of  public  affairs  which  were  incident  to 
that  period  of  the  war.  During  the  whole  four  years 
of  struggle  and  sorrow  in  the  country  he  never  de- 
clined any  service  which  the  exigencies  seemed  to 
require  of  him,  whether  of  council  or  sacrifice.  At  a 
time  when  he  was  in  a  condition  of  physical  exhaust- 
ion and  mental  weariness,  he  was  suddenly  called 
from  his  home  to  a  council  of  patriots  in  New- 
York.  Taking  the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  West- 
ern Railroad  to  Great  Bend,  he  entered  a  train  on 
the  Erie  road  late  at  night,  and,  without  observing 
his  surroundings,  he  sat  himself  down  among  a 
crowd  of  Confederate  prisoners  that  had  been  cap- 
tured in  Virginia.  This  was  just  after  the  great  bat- 
tle of  Fredericksburg.  Here  in  his  weariness  he  fell 
asleep,  without  thought  or  care  of  his  fellow-passen- 
gers. As  soon  as  he  was  discovered  by  the  con- 
ductor of  the  train  he  was  hurried  into  another  car ; 
but  it  was  too  late  to  escape  the  consequences  of  his 
exposure.  He  pushed  his  business  through  in  New- 
York,  and  returned  home  with  all  speed  and  without 
rest,  but  he  came  from  his  second  night's  travel  with 
a  fever  which  in  a  few  days  developed  a  genuine 
case  of  small-pox,  which  converted  his  beautiful 
home,  for  a  time,  into  a  pest-house,  in  which  his  wife 
was  established  in  all  the  offices  of  nurse,  steward, 
and  cook.  After  the  regular  process  of  the  disease 
he  came  forth  with  few  external  signs  of  the  plague, 


94  Thomas  Dickson. 

but  with  a  grasp  of  disease  about  the  valves  of  his 
heart,  from  which  he  was  never  afterward  entirely 
free.  He  was  soon  found  in  the  full  harness  of  en- 
terprise and  business  at  his  office,  but  his  vigor  and 
power  of  endurance  seem  to  have  been  visibly  weak- 
ened. He  suffered  from  painful  and  strange  attacks 
of  exhaustion,  shortness  of  breath,  and  sensations  of 
brain  confusion,  which  to  his  wife  and  family  became 
alarming.  These  attacks  were  not  particularly  vio- 
lent, and  they  were  at  long  intervals,  which  perhaps 
became  the  more  wearing  on  his  general  health  and 
spirits  from  the  mystery  of  their  cause.  This  cause 
was  only  fully  and  clearly  revealed  after  his  death, 
twenty-one  years  after  the  first  appearance  of  the 
symptoms.  It  was  the  slow  and  very  gradual  ossifi- 
cation of  some  of  the  valves  of  the  heart.  It  was  so 
gradual,  that  for  at  least  ten  of  the  twenty  years  he 
lived  after  this  siege  with  the  small- pox,  he  did  not 
think  of  himself  as  really  out  of  health.  But  his 
great  labors  gradually  told  upon  his  strength  and 
elasticity,  as  became  apparent  to  his  best  friends. 
He  was  observed  to  use  his  carriage  more  fre- 
quently, and  when  he  walked  he  manifested  a  delib- 
eration and  dignity  of  carriage  which  could  hardly 
be  supposed  to  be  the  signs  of  approaching  old  age. 
Yet  these  things  gave  no  suggestion  of  real  disease. 
His  responsibilities,  with  the  confinement  incident  to 
his  business,  after  a  few  years  began  visibly  to  wear 
upon  his  health.    After  his  election  to  the  presidency 


Declining  Health.  95 

of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company  his  best  friends 
began  to  discern  the  signs  of  approaching  pros- 
tration, and  they  begged  him  to  desist  and  take  a 
rest  in  life's  labors;  to  cut  himself  loose  from  the 
harness  in  which  he  had  pulled  from  his  childhood, 
and  try  the  effect  of  general  travel. 

Both  his  reading  and  his  interest  in  the  world's 
condition  made  these  suggestions  pleasant  to  him,  as 
he  considered  them.  He  turned  his  thoughts  to  the 
outer  world,  with  which  he  had  been  in  more  or 
less  direct  contact  through  his  business,  and  ex- 
pressed a  growing  desire  to  see  how  other  people 
lived,  at  home. 

The  Company  at  length  took  the  matter  seriously 
in  hand.  They  gave  him  a  year's  leave  of  absence 
for  travel  and  recuperation,  with  the  expression,  on 
the  part  of  the  directors,  of  their  best  wishes  for  his 
restoration  to  health.  So  he  determined  upon  a 
tour  with  his  "guid  wife"  entirely  around  the  world. 
His  eldest  son,  James  P.  Dickson,  had  been  for  two 
years  residing  at  Hong-Kong,  China,  and  perhaps 
this  fact,  in  good  measure,  determined  the  direction 
of  his  route  and  the  length  of  his  journey.  As  his 
health  had  become  somewhat  precarious,  his  beloved 
wife  became  the  more  constant  companion  of  all  his 
travels.  Indeed,  he  became  inseparable  from  her 
after  his  children  had  begun  to  walk  alone  through 
the  world.  While  he  perhaps  never  acknowledged 
to  himself  that  his  mysterious  disease  had  anything 


96  Thomas  Dickson, 

to  do  with  keeping  her  with  him,  it  nevertheless  be- 
came very  apparent  that  he  wished  to  be  near  her, 
whether  at  home  or  abroad.  In  the  midsummer  of 
1 87 1  he  reached  his  conclusion  to  make  the  long 
journey — taking  his  "  guid  wife  "  to  see  her  boy,  as 
he  said,  on  the  under-side  of  the  footstool. 

About  the  first  of  September,  1871,  Mr.  Dickson 
left  his  home  in  Scranton  thus  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  going  westward  to  make  this  tour  of  the  world. 
On  the  24th  of  that  month  they  arrived  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  sailed  from  that  port  in  the  steamship 
"  Republic,"  on  the  28th,  for  the  port  of  Japan,  and 
from  thence  to  Hong-Kong.  In  China  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Dickson  were  joined  by  their  son,  who  journeyed 
with  them  and  returned  home  with  them  to  remain. 
They  passed  through  the  chief  countries  of  Asia. 
They  traveled  through  Syria  and  Palestine  on  horse- 
back. They  climbed  the  Pyramids  of  Egpyt,  and  sailed 
up  and  down  the  Nile  together.  They  threaded  the 
narrow  channels  of  the  historic  islands  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, sailed  along  the  borders  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
thence  back  through  the  islands  of  Greece  into  Italy. 
Here  they  met  friends  from  home,  and  with  them 
made  the  tour  of  Europe,  using  every  sort  of  con- 
veyance. They  passed  through  Italy  and  climbed 
the  mountain  passes  of  Switzerland.  They  drove 
through  Germany,  stopping  to  drink  life-waters  from 
the  medicinal  fountains.  They  looked  into  the  gay 
life  of  Paris  and  the  more  substantial  one  of  Lon- 


THOS.    DICKSON. 


1883. 


MARY  MARVINE  DICKSON. 

1878. 


Declining  Health.  97 

don,  and  then  passed  northerly  through  England, 
and  reveled  among  the  historic  hills  and  valleys  of 
Scotland,  in  midsummer.  They  visited  all  the  points 
which  had  been  deemed  sacred  around  the  fireside 
of  the  emigrants  in  the  far-off  new  country,  and 
traced  the  foot-prints  of  their  fathers  through  Scot- 
land and  northern  England ;  thence  they  passed 
into  Ireland  to  visit  what  Mr.  Dickson  calls  "the 
land  where  my  masters  come  from," — referring  to 
the  great  number  of  Irish  laborers  it  had  been  his 
life-work  to  employ  and  to  serve.  The  tour  of 
Scotland,  Ireland,  and  England  was  completed 
toward  the  end  of  August,  when  they  sailed  from 
Liverpool  on  the  homeward  voyage.  They  arrived 
safely  at  home  on  the  27th  day  of  August;  thus 
having  encircled  the  earth  in  just  about  the  space 
of  one  year. 

During  this  whole  year  of  travel  Mr.  Dickson's 
health  seems  to  have  improved,  and  his  enjoyment 
to  have  increased  with  his  progress.  From  the  start, 
he  adopted  the  plan  of  letter-writing  to  his  family 
and  relatives  at  home,  giving  thereby  an  accurate 
account  of  his  travels  and  impressions.  These  letters 
were  forwarded  with  business  regularity,  containing 
accurate  pictures  of  the  lands  he  visited  ;  but  among 
them,  ever  visible,  was  the  unconsciously-drawn  pict- 
ure of  the  traveler  himself.  They  were  written  in  all 
manner  of  straits  and  with  every  conceivable  incon- 
venience, but  they  were   masterpieces   of  personal 


98  Thomas  Dickson, 

correspondence.  These  letters  were  preserved,  and 
afterward  collected  and  bound  in  a  book  constituting 
276  pages,  foolscap  size.  They  were  never  intended 
for  publication,  but  they  remain  a  family  souvenir, 
containing  a  great  amount  of  knowledge,  and  many 
marks  of  literary  ability,  as  well  as  of  an  accurate 
observation.  They  are  filled  with  the  sparkle  of 
their  author ;  and  those  who  knew  him,  as  they  read 
these  pages,  can  see  the  twinkle  of  his  eyes  and  hear 
the  droll  announcement  of  his  observations,  whether 
among  the  Chinese,  the  Arabs,  the  Turks,  the  Italians, 
or  Caledonians,  as  distinctly  as  if  they  were  with  him. 

This  year  of  relaxation  proved  a  great  benefit  to 
Mr.  Dickson  in  various  ways.  It  enlarged  the  man  ; 
gave  him  better  views  of  life  and  of  humanity,  and 
increased  his  business  capability.  But  his  most  inti- 
mate friends  were  still  oppressed  with  convictions 
that  his  physical  manhood  had  received  a  shock 
somehow,  and  that  he  would  probably  never  enjoy 
the  buoyancy  of  health  which  had  marked  his  early 
career.  By  the  time  he  had  crossed  the  continent 
in  his  departure,  the  return  of  his  physical  vigor  and 
his  mental  vivacity  gave  to  his  friends  the  confident 
prophecy  that  restoration  and  prolonged  life  lay  in 
the  line  of  the  travel  he  had  chosen ;  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  but  that  his  life  was  prolonged  a  number 
of  years  by  this  timely  rest  from  work. 

September,  1872,  found  Mr.  Dickson  again  in  the 
harness,  ready  for  the  greater  burdens  which  in  his 


Declining  Health.  99 

absence  had  been  taken  by  the  Company.  The  long 
line  of  railway  connecting  the  Company's  coal-fields 
with  the  Dominion  of  Canada  had  been  undertaken 
and  pushed  well  on  toward  completion,  and  this 
added  greatly  to  his  cares  and  responsibilities ;  but 
he  took  up  the  additional  work  without  hesitation, 
and  completed  this  international  enterprise.  This, 
because  of  the  condition  of  the  business  of  the  coun- 
try, led  him  and  the  Company  into  a  labyrinth  ot 
difficulties  through  which  he  struggled  for  the  next 
few  years  in  a  way  that  illustrated  his  highest  busi- 
ness qualities,  and  out  of  which  he  came  with  an 
illustrious  reputation. 

The  rapid  developments  of  the  country  had,  through 
a  series  of  years,  tended  to  the  extensive  enlarging  of  all 
schemes  of  business.  Corporations  which  had  started 
from  small  beginnings  had  become  greatly  enlarged 
in  their  operations,  and  seemed  constantly,  and  in 
some  cases  unreasonably,  to  be  reaching  forth  toward 
all  schemes  of  business  enterprise.  The  necessary 
consequence  of  their  success  was  that  they  began  to 
overlap  and  entangle  each  other.  Complications  of 
business  and  the  clashing  of  enterprises  became  fre- 
quent, and  general.  The  whole  field  of  associated 
capital  became  the  more  hazardous  and  perplexed ; 
possibly  by  reason  of  the  steady  increase  of  the 
financial  depression  which  affected  the  whole  country 
throughout  the  period  from  1872  to  1878.  Over- 
production seemed  to  have  accumulated  supply  far 


ioo  Thomas  Dickson. 

beyond  the  proportions  of  demand,  in  the  market. 
Uneasiness  and  depression,  in  time,  smote  all  busi- 
ness circles,  and  with  greater  or  less  power  disturbed 
the  peace  by  destroying  that  confidence  among  men 
without  which  successful  business  is  impossible. 
There  has  been  in  the  history  of  the  industries  con- 
nected with  the  anthracite  coal-fields  no  period  more 
trying,  nor  one  in  which  higher  mental  and  moral 
qualities  were  demanded,  in  order  to  save  the  great 
corporations  from  wreck,  and  successfully  carry  for- 
ward their  enterprises.  This  was  the  period  in 
which  Mr.  Dickson  demonstrated  his  highest  powers, 
by  his  adaptability  of  wisdom  and  honesty  to  the 
necessities  of  the  times. 

He  had  but  fairly  entered  upon  his  charge,  on  his 
return  from  abroad,  when  this  period  of  long  and  per- 
plexing trial  came  upon  the  Company  of  which  he 
was  the  president.  Here  was  the  exigency  under 
which  his  greatest  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  were 
most  distinctly  demonstrated  ;  where  both  his  genius, 
his  wisdom  and  his  poise,  founded  upon  his  unshaken 
faith,  proved  of  inestimable  value. 

It  is  not  the  intention  of  this  memorial  to  write  a 
history  of  these  years  of  the  great  clash  of  industries, 
whose  causes  it  would  be  difficult  if  not  impossible 
exhaustively  to  trace.  Of  these  I  have  treated,  at 
some  length,  in  the  work  styled  "A  City's  Danger 
and  Defense."  Here  it  is  enough  to  say  that  these 
financial  complications  culminated  in  the  unparalleled 


Declining  Health.  101 

strike  of  1877,  and  the  temporary  confusion  of  busi- 
ness throughout  the  whole  nation.  For  a  time  the  busi- 
ness of  fifty  millions  of  people  was  dependent  upon  the 
whim  of  an  organized  multitude  of  railway  and  manu- 
facturing laborers,  who,  in  defiance  of  law,  attempted 
to  control  the  great  industries  by  a  concerted  strike. 
We  will  not  even  attempt  to  chronicle  the  exigencies 
of  the  Company  with  which  Mr.  Dickson  was  iden- 
tified, nor  the  trials  through  which  it  passed  as  a 
consequence  of  this  strange  complication  and  de- 
pression of  values.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  this  old 
and  responsible  corporation,  for  a  time,  was  watched 
by  anxious  friends  much  as  a  ship  that  is  discovered 
among  breakers  in  the  fury  of  the  storm,  with  sails 
torn  and  ropes  broken ;  as  a  ship  when  the  crew  and 
subordinates  are  seen  to  give  more  attention  to  the 
life-boat  than  to  the  ship,  whose  doom  seems  almost 
certain.  But  through  all  the  rage  of  the  waters  this 
calm,  cheerful  captain  is  visible,  standing  unmoved 
and  collected,  as  the  prophecy  and  assurance  that 
the  ship  shall  yet  weather  the  tempest  and  ride  clear 
of  the  breakers.  President  Dickson  pledged  all  he 
had  in  the  world  to  save  the  Company,  with  whose 
life  the  fate  of  so  many  widows  and  children  was 
involved ;  and  then  brought  to  its  service  all  the 
latent  powers  of  his  honest  nature  and  versatile 
genius.  His  wisdom  and  integrity;  his  sense  of 
justice  and  his  faith  in  God ;  his  sympathy  with  his 
fellow-men  of  all  ranks,  and  his  persevering  hopeful- 


102  Thomas  Dickson. 

ness,  shone  out  through  all  these  years;  and  they 
leave  for  us  to  contemplate  the  very  embodiment 
and  expression  of  a  true  Christian  manliness.  His 
plans  and  his  influence  swept  out  silently  and  per- 
sistently until  their  power  was  felt  in  the  whole  field 
of  the  coal  and  railway  industries.  " Patience"  had 
"her  perfect  work,"  and  when  the  high  seas  subsided 
after  the  storm,  and  wrecks  were  strewn  everywhere, 
this  master  anchored  his  charge  in  the  haven  of  suc- 
cess without  even  the  suggestion  to  the  outside 
world  that  any  extraordinary  skill  or  courage  had 
been  required.  He  was  never  known  to  urge 
any  claim  for  personal  recognition  because  of  these 
services. 

But  these  were  years  when  there  was  great  waste 
of  vital  energies  and  expenditure  of  physical  force. 
Mr.  Dickson  kept  up  his  vivacity  and  his  cheerfulness. 
The  world  in  which  he  moved  saw  little  change  in 
him,  save  that  which  was  conceived  as  simply  nat- 
ural decay  of  human  life.  Some  even  charged  him 
with  heartless  indifference,  because  he  walked  so 
calmly  and  cheerfully  through  the  ordeal.  But  his 
loving  wife  crept  nearer  to  his  side  under  the  in- 
creased burden  of  care  and  apprehension.  Somber 
shadows  fell  on  the  inner  circles  of  his  friends,  who 
thought  they  discerned  him  in  the  grip  of  some  mys- 
terious disease.  Through  all  these  years  his  power 
of  will,  and  his  high  purpose,  kept  him  in  regular 
step  with  the  march  of  his  duties ;  but  when  the  day 


Declining  Health,  103 

was  over  he  sought  more  earnestly  for  quiet,  and 
showed  his  need  of  rest  not  to  be  mistaken.  It 
always  seemed  so  easy  and  so  natural  for  him  to 
make  everybody  happy  and  cheerful  about  him ;  and 
it  seemed  so  unnatural  for  him  ever  to  complain, 
that  it  was  not  until  his  end  was  almost  at  hand 
that  his  associates  could  think  him  seriously  disabled. 
He  kept  his  great  work  fully  in  hand  up  to  within  a 
few  weeks  of  the  close  of  his  life.  Yet  it  was  discov- 
ered, after  his  death,  and  announced  by  his  physi- 
cians, that  "his  life  for  the  last  ten,  or  fifteen^  years 
had  been  hanging  upon  a  thread."  His  activity  under 
such  a  pressure  of  disease  was  more  than  a  marvel. 
The  ossification  of  the  valves  of  his  heart  had  gone 
on  steadily  through  the  course  of  years,  limiting  the 
flow  of  blood  in  his  system,  until,  when  death  came, 
an  orifice  through  which  a  cambric  needle  could 
hardly  be  passed  was  the  last  channel  left  for  the 
vital  flow. 

In  the  spring  of  1883,  under  the  urgency  of  his 
family,  he  left  his  office.  For  three  months  he 
rested,  and  traveled  with  his  wife  and  some  of  the 
younger  members  of  his  family.  With  a  few  friends 
he  sailed  for  Europe  in  the  early  part  of  May.  He 
spent  the  summer  chiefly  in  travel,  by  private  car- 
riage, through  England,  Scotland,  and  in  different 
countries  upon  the  Continent.  This  relaxation  he 
greatly  enjoyed,  though  constantly  burdened  with 
physical  weakness  and  suffering.     His  observation 


104  Thomas  Dickson. 

seemed  to  be  quickened,  and  his  love  for  his  old 
friends  seemed  to  grow  stronger  as  the  shadows 
gathered  about  his  life.  With  his  son  for  his  aman- 
uensis, he  rested  himself  from  the  weariness  of  his 
travels  in  writing  letters  to  his  old  friends  at  home, 
in  which  his  life-long  wit  and  wisdom  flashed  out 
with  their  wonted  vigor. 

He  returned  in  the  autumn  to  his  post,  but  took 
hold  of  his  work  with  a  weary  and  relaxing  grasp. 
Through  the  long  winter  following  he  toiled  without 
complaint,  while  his  family  and  friends  schemed  to- 
gether to  relieve  him  of  his  heavier  burdens,  and 
absorb  him  in  the  enjoyment  of  social  life,  with  the 
hope  that  he  might  yet  find  rest,  and  recuperate. 
But  he  calmly  and  hopefully  faced  the  reality  of  life's 
issues,  and  silently  determined  to  fall  at  last  in  the  har- 
ness of  business,  which  had  never  galled  nor  fretted 
him.  His  intellectual  force  and  mental  energy  never 
seemed  to  flag,  nor  to  weaken.  His  wit  and  his  love 
of  fun  kept  full  step  with  his  patience  and  dignity, 
and  so  continued  as  long  as  he  lived.  When  in  the 
spring  and  early  summer  his  physical  weakness  shut 
him  up  in  his  summer  home  at  Morristown,  or  con- 
fined him  to  the  walks  over  his  beautiful  grounds,  he 
amused  himself  and  his  friends  by  making  his  little 
granddaughter  his  special  nurse  and  equal  compan- 
ion. Little  Ethel  Boies  became  his  matron  and 
teacher.  She  told  him  when  to  get  up  and  when  to 
retire.     Showed  him  how  to  put  on  his  clothes  in  the 


Declining  Health,  105 

morning,  when  he  always  seemed  to  have  forgotten 
which  side  of  the  garment  went  before,  and  which 
behind.  With  loving  patience  the  little  one  changed 
for  him  his  shoes,  that  always  seemed  to  be  seeking 
for  the  wrong  feet.  She  showed  him  how  to  shave 
and  comb  his  hair  when  he  seemed  always,  in  a  puz- 
zled way,  to  take  the  hair-brush  for  his  razor  and 
always  hopelessly  mixed  the  soap,  towels  and  water. 
He  was  never  too  weary  to  puzzle  the  child  and 
watch  her  motherly  care  develop.  She  became  his 
companion,  and  among  the  full  crop  of  June  roses  of 
the  Dickson  home  there  was  nothing  more  beautiful 
or  enchanting  than  this  mingling  of  the  graces  of 
sunset  and  sunrising.  Never  was  decaying  man- 
hood, after  a  full  life  ofvigor  and  success,  made  more 
beautiful  and  precious  than  when  thus  glorified  by 
its  mingling  with  this  lovely  childhood  —  a  childhood 
which  followed  it  with  the  patience  of  love  and  a 
constantly  increasing  puzzle  of  wonder. 

Mr.  Dickson  still  superintended  his  work  in  his 
feebleness,  and  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  office  with 
the  aid  of  his  associates  up  to  July.  He  continued 
to  pass  up  and  down  the  railway,  in  answer  to  the 
claims  of  duty,  with  his  loving  wife  at  his  side,  seek- 
ing always  to  gather  and  dispense  cheerful  comfort. 
He  visited  his  children  and  relatives  in  Scranton  and 
Carbondale  in  midsummer,  and  made  his  last  public 
appearance  at  the  marriage  of  his  sister's  daughter, 
Miss  Mary  Fordham,  in  Scranton.     He  still  walked 


106  Thomas  Dickson, 

erect  and  greeted  his  friends  with  his  life-long  hearti- 
ness. But  he  seemed  ever  conscious  of  the  rapidly 
approaching  dissolution.  At  his  last  appearance  in 
his  Scranton  office  he  made  his  old  friend  and  pastor 
sit  down  with  him  at  his  desk,  and  for  an  hour  held 
heart-communion  with  him  on  the  solemn  side  of  the 
drama  of  life,  with  its  mysterious  close  in  death,  and 
its  revealed  eternity.  In  it  all  he  spoke  with  the 
same  calmness  which  characterized  his  business  ac- 
tivity. With  simple  trust  in  the  Saviour  of  sinners, 
he  said  he  proposed  to  walk  on  until  he  should  fall, 
trusting  that,  when  he  did,  the  good  and  merciful 
God  would  take  him  to  the  home  of  eternal  rest  and 
full  satisfaction. 

He  returned  from  his  farewell  visit  to  the  scenes 
of  his  youth,  and  of  the  responsibility  of  the  riper 
years,  to  his  home  at  Morristown ;  and  after  remain- 
ing a  few  days  passed  up  the  Hudson,  still  able  to 
do  light  duties,  and  hopeful  of  continued  strength. 
While  on  this  visit  at  the  Catskill  House  he  was 
taken  suddenly  worse,  and  his  attack  was  aggravated 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  out  of  reach  of  his  physician. 
With  much  difficulty  he  was  taken  back  to  his  home  at 
Morristown.  Shrinking  from  the  idea  of  helplessness, 
he  doubtless  by  his  very  physical  exertions  aggrava- 
ted his  attack,  and  hurried  on  the  exhaustion  which 
was  so  rapidly  pushing  him  out  of  the  world.  Lean- 
ing on  the  arm  of  his  old  friend,  Coe  F.  Young,  he 
even  protested  that  he  was  giving  assistance,  rather 


Declining  Health.  107 

than  receiving  it ;  and  found  breath  in  the  very  limits 
of  his  life  to  cheer  this  life-long  friend  and  brother. 
Poor  Young  had  to  laugh  through  his  tears,  while 
Dickson  persisted  jn  twitting  him  with  his  clumsy- 
helplessness  and  dependence  upon  the  friend  he  had 
leaned  on  so  long.  His  cheerfulness  and  his  mental 
vivacity  were  the  last  signals  he  left  flying  in  the 
view  of  his  life-long  friends  who  gathered  about  him. 
His  Morristown  pastor,  Dr.  Erdmon,  sat  down  by 
his  bedside  and  found  the  solid  comfort  of  a  soul 
implicitly  resting  in  hope;  and  discovered  the  real 
heart-strength  of  the  Christian,  which  gave  blessed 
token  of  a  coming  glory. 

Without  a  complaint,  or  disturbed  confidence  for  a 
moment,  Thomas  Dickson  sunk  away  with  the  de- 
clining sun  of  the  afternoon  of  the  31st  of  July,  1884, 
when,  as  the  evening  shadows  began  to  lengthen,  he 
passed  through  the  twilight  to  the  morning.  Sud- 
denly the  "  wheel  was  broken  at  the  cistern,"  and 
this  noble  brother,  husband,  father,  friend — this  man 
of  successful  business,  whose  life  was  so  precious  to 
so  many  other  lives — simply  "fell  on  sleep"  and 
"was  not,  for  God  took  him."  He  had  gathered  his 
garments  about  him  and  lain  down,  with  Christian 
dignity,  to  his  rest. 


VII 


VOICES     OF     THE     NIGHT SYMPATHIES     OF     HUMAN 

BROTHERHOOD FLOWERS    WET   WITH    TEARS. 


THE  shock  of  President  Dickson's  departure  was 
felt,  far  and  near.  Through  a  thousand  hearts 
in  the  fields  of  life  and  activity  the  wounds  from 
broken  heart-strings  showed  how  he  had  gathered 
humanity  into  loving  association  with  himself.  As 
the  sun  set  and  night  gathered  upon  the  home 
where  the  broken-hearted  Mary  Marvine,  with  her 
great  love,  so  long  his  companion,  must  henceforth 
walk  in  her  widowhood,  the  pulsations  of  grief  were 
found  knocking  at  every  door,  laden  with  tokens  of 
sympathy.  Families  all  over  the  communities  where 
they  had  lived  had  been  watching  at  the  bedside  of 
the  dying  man  as,  hour  by  hour,  the  telegraph  and 


108 


Syrnpathy  of  Brotherhood.  109 

telephone  told  the  story,  and  the  steps,  of  his  de- 
cline. The  voices  of  sorrow  trembled  and  broke 
silently  about  the  stricken  household.  Here  are 
some  of  these  expressions  of  sympathy  and  grief, 
which  testify  of  the  character  of  the'  dying  Christian, 
as  well  as  give  glimpses  into  the  hearts  of  those  who 
were  soon  to  follow  after  him.  The  selection  of 
these  expressions  has  been  made  by  Mrs.  Dickson 
herself,  as  mere  specimens  of  the  sympathy  of  human 
brotherhood  which  flowed  in  as  living  streams  to 
mingle  with  the  floods  of  household  grief.  They  are 
but  voices  of  the  night  sent  to  cheer  and  strengthen 
the  weary  souls  that  sit  in  its  darkness.  They  are 
as  follows : 


Scranton,   Pa.,  July  30,  1884. 

Mr.  James  P.  Dickson,  Morristown,  N.  J. 

My  Dear  Friend:  While  I  know  that  both  you 
and  your  father's  family  are  assured  of  my  profound 
sympathy  at  all  times  of  trouble,  I  feel  to-day  that  I 
ought  to  send  to  you  a  simple  reminder,  if,  possibly, 
it  might  make  your  burdened  mother  feel  just  a  little 
stronger  to  bear  her  burdens  to  know  that  she  does 
not  suffer  alone.  There  is  but  one  sentiment  in  this 
community  to-day,  and  especially  among  the  people 
that  you  and  I  are  acquainted  with.  It  is  one  of  the 
deepest  sorrows  of  our  life  that  a  man  of  such  excel- 


no  Thomas  Dickson. 

lence  as  your  father  must  go  away  to  return  to  us 
no  more.  > 

Words  in  such  a  case  as  this,  and  at  such  a  time 
as  this,  lose  all  their  force,  and  silence  always  seems 
to  me  more  potent  and  becoming  than  speech.  I 
can  only  say  I  loved  your  father  with  a  feeling 
which  began  in  admiration  of  his  honest,  manly 
spirit,  and  was  strengthened  by  every  contact  with 
him  through  a  long  series  of  years,  and  which  is 
made  the  more  sacred  by  a  deeper  conviction  of  his 
real  Christian  character.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a 
Christian  to  live  such  a  life  as  he  has,  in  the  midst 
of  such  temptations,  and  under  the  burdens  of  such  a 
stewardship  as  he  fulfilled.  But  it  is  a  greater  thing 
for  a  Christian  to  die  than  to  live.  "  Precious  in 
the  sight  of  the  Lord  is  the  death  of  his  saints." 
Of  all  the  voices  of  Providence  or  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  for  which  your  father  has  listened  in  the  per- 
plexities of  an  honest,  conscientious  life,  there  is  not 
one  that  contains  in  it  so  much  of  unspeakable  com- 
fort and  joy  as  that  which  I  presume  he  shall  hear 
to-day,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

Please  assure  your  mother,  on  any  suitable  occa- 
sion, that  Mrs.  Logan  and  myself  weep  with  her,  and 
cease  not  to  pray  for  our  dear  Lord's  presence  with 
her  in  these  waters  of  affliction,  for  whose  depths  we 
have  no  measure.  The  Lord  only  can  comfort  her ; 
and  He  can  do  so. 

If  your  father  and  my  friend  is  conscious  when 


Sympathy  of  Brotherhood.  1 1 1 

this  comes  to  hand,  please  give  him  my  undying 
love ;  and  ask  him  now  and  then,  in  the  joys  of  the 
Fathers  house,  if  he  shall  find  room  for  it,  to  recall 
this  poor  sinner,  who  has  been  associated  with  him 
so  long,  and  who  hopes  to  meet  him  soon  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  of  life  that  flows  from  beneath 
the  throne  of  our  Father. 

If  I  can  at  any  time  be  of  use  in  this  sorrow  of 
your  home  and  house,  I  will  be  happy  to  have  you 
command  me,  with  all  freedom.  Give  yourself  no 
trouble  to  acknowledge  this  note ;  it  is  only  the  out- 
going of  a  lonely  heart  in  the  day  of  your  trouble, 
and  needs  no  recognition.  God  bless  your  mother 
and  her  children. 

With  sincerity  and    grief  I    am   your   and   your 

father's  friend,  c    r*    i 

1  S.  C.  Logan. 


Whitby,  Ontario,  Canada,  Aug.  i,  1884. 

Dear  Mrs.  Dickson:  The  sad  tidings  of  your 
bitter  bereavement  have  overwhelmed  us  with  sor- 
row. I  only  wish  I  could  go  and  silently  mingle  my 
tears  with  those  who  mourn  for  him  to-day,  and  per- 
sonally assure  you  of  our  deep  and  tender  sympathy 
with  you  in  your  grief.  Your  noble-minded,  gener- 
ous, warm-hearted  husband  was  very  dear  to  me. 
My  heart  went  out  irresistibly  toward  him.  I  loved 
him  as  a  brother,  and  as  such  I  mourn  for  him.     I  will 


ii2  Thomas  Dickson. 

cherish  his  memory  while  I  live,  and  I  pray  God  I 
may,  through  riches  of  divine  grace,  be  permitted 
again  to  renew  our  intercourse  in  that  home  where 
death  never  enters.  I  have  been  suffering  much  this 
week,  and  am  better  to-day,  but  my  physician  en- 
joins quiet.  Had  I  been  able  to  undertake  the  jour- 
ney I  would  have  gone  to  Scranton  on  Monday,  as 
my  heart  prompted. 

May  the  richest  consolations  which  the  gospel  of 
Christ  presents  be  yours  in  this  your  time  of  need. 
As  your  day,  may  your  strength  be.  Mrs.  O.  joins 
me  in  loving  sympathy  to  yourself  and  kindest  re- 
gards to  each  of  the  several  bereaved  households. 
May  the  God  of  the  Fatherless  bless  them  all. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

W.  Ormiston. 


Edinburgh,  Scotland,  Aug.  16,  1884. 

My  Dear  Mrs.  Dickson:  The  letter  from  your 
son  James  which  I  received  last  Tuesday  ought  to 
have  prepared  me  for  the  worst ;  but  when  I  learned 
to-day  from  Mr.  Wood,  who  has  just  joined  us  here, 
that  my  beloved  friend  is  no  more,  the  blow  seemed 
as  sudden  as  if  it  had  come  without  any  warning, 
and  I  am  overwhelmed  with  sorrow. 

I  need  not  refer  to  the  great  loss  which  the  public 
has  sustained  by  the  death  of  one  so  honored,  trusted, 


Sympathy  of  Brotherhood.  1 1 3 

and  useful  in  the  many  important  enterprises  with 
which  he  was  connected;  nor  to  the  loss  of  the 
Church  by  the  removal  of  one  who  in  private  life  and 
in  his  prominent  public  position  so  honored  the  doc- 
trine he  professed.  Still  less  would  I  dwell  upon 
your  own  great  sorrow.  That  is  too  sacred  for  any 
words  of  mine.  I  can  only,  out  of  a  full  heart,  com- 
mend you  and  your  dear  children  to  the  consolations 
and  support  of  our  Heavenly  Father.  But  I  may 
speak  to  you  of  my  own  personal  loss,  which  I  feel 
to  be  irreparable.  I  shall  never  find  another  such  a 
friend.  At  my  time  of  life  new  friendships  are  sel- 
dom formed ;  and  then,  where  could  I  hope  again  to 
find  a  man  like  him  ?  Mr.  Dickson  must  have  known 
that  I  respected  and  loved  him,  but  I  can  scarcely 
think  he  knew  the  strength  of  my  attachment.  He 
had  many  devoted  friends,  but  among  them  all,  I  am 
sure  there  was  no  one  who  more  lovingly  or  more 
continuously  kept  him  in  grateful  remembrance  than 
I  did.  Since  he  bid  me  good-by  on  the  deck  of  the 
steamer  last  October  there  have  been  but  few  days 
when  some  loving  thought  of  him  has  not  been  in 
my  mind,  and  I  cannot  now  repress  my  tears  at  the 
thought  that  I  shall  not  receive  his  greeting  upon 
my  return  home. 

But  may  God  give  me  grace  so  to  live  that  I  shall 
yet  receive  from  my  beloved  friend  "  welcome  home  " 
when  the  voyage  of  life  is  ended ;  if  through  Christ's 
love  I  may  reach  that  blessed  and  peaceful  shore, 


H4  Thomas  Dickson. 

where  your  precious  boy  has  already  welcomed  his 
father,  and  where,  in  the  joy  of  God's  presence,  they 
both  wait  for  you. 

Mrs.  Cattell  sends  her  love.  She,  too,  feels  the 
sense  of  a  great  personal  loss  in  this  bereavement. 
Again  I  pray  that  our  dear  Lord  may  comfort  and 
sustain  you,  and  that  He  may  help  us  all  to  bow  with 
reverent  submission  to  His  holy  will. 

Faithfully  your  friend, 

W.  C.  Cattell. 


These  are  but  a  tithe  of  the  great  love-expressions 
that  came  to  this  stricken  household  as  the  ,night  of 
bereavement  fell  upon  it.  Heart-expressions  of  grief 
and  sympathy,  mingled  with  honest,  manly  testi- 
mony to  the  great  and  good  life  just  closed,  were 
poured  into  this  "  house  of  mourning  "  by  the  hun- 
dred from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Weeping  women 
wove  crowns  of  glory  with  choicest  flowers  to  place 
upon  his  narrow  house,  and  wet  them  with  their 
tears.  Devout  men  in  all  walks  and  business  of 
life  turned  aside  from  their  accustomed  paths,  and 
gathered  to  bear  away  his  body  to  its  resting-place. 
Strong  men,  churches,  benevolent  societies,  and  great 
organizations,  betook  themselves  to  the  weaving  of 
chaplets  of  sincere  and  manly  testimony  to  his  excel- 
lence and  his  genius,  with  which  his  tomb  should  be 
crowned. 


Sympathy  of  Brotherhood.  115 

The  press  of  two  continents,  as  the  telegraph  an- 
nounced the  departure  of  his  soul,  sent  forth  the 
record  and  estimate  of  this  man  of  business  whose 
genius  had  been  illustrated  by  the  steady  glow  of 
Christian  manhood,  and  whose  life-work  had  been 
left  unstained,  either  by  schemes  of  selfishness  or  acts 
of  injustice.  As  the  sun  arose  upon  the  busy  world 
the  vast  works,  with  their  countless  wheels,  which 
Thomas  Dickson  had  set  in  motion  and  so  long  con- 
trolled, paused  in  respect  to  his  memory ;  and  it  was 
everywhere  discovered  that  the  man,  lying  so  still  in 
the  dignity  of  his  rest,  was  indeed  far  greater  than  all 
his  works.  He  had  simply  passed  through  evening 
shadows  into  a  cloudless  morning. 


VIII. 

At  evening  time  it  shall  be  light." 


CHRISTIAN      BURIAL     AND      THE      CHRISTIANS      T0MB- 

SHADOWS    THE    ASSURANCE    OF    LIGHT CHAPLETS 

FOR    THE    WORTHY    MAN'S    MONUMENT    TEM- 
PORAL   AND    UNFADING. 


ON  the  second  day  of  August,  1884,  the  remains 
of  Thomas  Dickson  were  placed  upon  a  special 
train,  which  had  been  heavily  draped  and  kindly 
furnished  for  the  use  of  the  family  and  friends  by 
Samuel  Sloan,  the  worthy  President  of  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western  Railway.  A  whole  train- 
load  of  old  friends  from  the  valley,  who  had  spon- 
taneously gathered,  accompanied  the  family  with 
their  precious  burden,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Dickson's  confidential  friend,  Mr.  Coe  F.  Young,  and 
his  sons.     Citizens,  business  and  professional  men, 


n6 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."      117 

workmen,  and  friends  in  social  life,  from  every  walk 
and  condition,  pressed  forward  for  the  privilege  of 
showing  their  affection  for  their  departed  associate 
and  friend ;  and  all  along  the  way  from  Morristown 
to  Scranton  the  deepest  symbols  of  mourning  testi- 
fied of  the  hold  that  this  man  had  taken  on  the  heart 
of  the  people.  The  body  was  received  with  tearful 
silence  by  the  citizens  of  Scranton  and  taken  to  the 
Dickson  residence,  where  it  remained  in  state  for 
two  days,  in  answer  to  the  demand  of  the  hundreds 
of  workmen  of  all  classes,  who  desired  to  look  on  the 
dead  face  of  the  man  whom  they  had  delighted  to 
serve  as  a  friend,  while  under  his  employment  and 
official  direction. 

On  the  fourth  day  after  his  demise  the  funeral 
services  took  place  from  the  family  residence  on 
Washington  Avenue,  conducted  with  befitting  sim- 
plicity, according,  as  nearly  as  possible,  with  his 
well-known  tastes,  and  desires  often  expressed.  The 
services  began  at  half-past  one  o'clock.  Hundreds 
gathered  to  the  funeral.  Not  only  were  the  house  and 
grounds  filled  to  their  utmost  capacity,  but  the  side- 
walks and  streets  for  a  block  or  more  away  were 
packed  with  those  who  desired  to  pay  the  last  trib- 
ute of  their  respect  to  this  brother  beloved.  It  had 
been  announced  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  that 
those  who  desired  could  view  the  remains,  and  for 
more  than  two  hours  a  constant  stream  of  mourners 
passed  through  the  gates  of  the  Dickson  mansion  to 


n8  Thomas  Dickson, 

take  a  last  look  at  his  face.  Hundreds  of  employees 
of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  and  of  the  Dickson 
Manufacturing  Companies  were  among  this  crowd ; 
and  scores  of  men  who  had  known  him  long  years 
ago,  before  he  had  achieved  his  life's  work  or  had 
made  his  great  place  in  society.  This  procession 
brought  tender  memories  to  his  intimate  friends  of 
those  heart  qualities  that  had  so  endeared  him  in  the 
years  gone  by,  and  as  they  passed  from  the  doors  not 
a  few  of  these  workmen  were  seen  wiping  away  the 
tears  of  genuine  grief. 

At  twelve  o'clock  the  doors  were  closed  and  im- 
mediate preparations  for  the  funeral  were  made ;  and 
within  half  an  hour  the  home  was  filled  with  the  rel- 
atives and  friends  of  the  family.  An  especial  train 
arrived  from  New- York  consisting  of  four  heavily- 
draped  coaches,  which  brought  a  large  party  of  ladies 
and  gentlemen  from  New  York,  and  Morristown. 
Many  more  had  come  from  Honesdale,  Carbondale, 
Wilkesbarre,  and  Pittston,  on  special  trains  during 
the  morning.  So  that  thousands  of  people  had  col- 
lected in  silence  when  the  time  appointed  for  the 
religious  services  had  arrived.  The  casket  was 
placed  in  the  front  parlor  of  the  mansion.  On  its  lid 
were  laid  palm  leaves,  the  symbols  of  victory,  with 
a  very  few  floral  designs  and  mementos  of  family 
affection.  The  funeral  services  were  under  the  direc- 
tion of  his  old  friend  and  pastor,  Rev.  S.  C.  Logan, 
D.  D.,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church.     The  Rev. 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light,"       119 

Thomas  R.  Beeber,  pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Scranton,  opened  the  services  with  an 
appropriate  prayer,  which  was  filled  with  tenderest 
sympathy,  wrought  into  beautiful  sentences,  and 
freighted  with  longings  for  the  Comforter  to  sanctify 
this  bereavement  and  sorrow  to  a  whole  community 
of  mourners.  The  prayer  closed  with  a  petition  for 
the  bereaved  household,  characterized  by  singular 
sweetness.  A  quartet  choir  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church,  consisting  of  Mrs.  Charles  Watres, 
Miss  Emily  Piatt,  and  Messrs.  Horace  E.  and  Wm. 
J.  Hand,  rendered  the  music  with  a  tearful  pathos. 

The  following  account  of  these  services  is  taken 
chiefly  from  the  report  made  by  the  papers  of  that 
day,  which  was  recognized  as  accurate  at  the  time : 

"After  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  Dr.  Logan 
introduced  Rev.  Albert  Erdman,  D.  D.,  pastor  of 
the  South  Street  Presbyterian  Church  at  Morris- 
town,  N.  J.,  who  had  ministered  to  Mr.  Dickson  in 
his  last  hours.  Dr.  Erdman's  address  was  short, 
sympathetic,  and  elegant.  It  was  especially  appro- 
priate by  the  testimony  he  gave  of  the  religious  faith 
manifested  in  the  last  hours  of  this  business  man.  It 
brought  lessons  of  wisdom  and  comfort  to  the  great 
audience.  He  spoke  in  part  as  follows :  '  It  is  my 
privilege  to  say  a  few  words  only  of  him  for  whom 
we  all  mourn,  and  toward  whom  we  have  so  deep  a 
regard — to  refer  briefly  to  him  whose  firm  Christian 
character  and  whose  traits  of  manhood  so  fully  won 


120  Thomas  Dickson, 

for  him  the  regard  of  all  who  knew  him.  It  has  been 
my  privilege  to  know  him  only  through  the  later 
years  of  his  life ;  but  it  was  my  special  privilege  to  be 
with  him  in  the  last  week,  which  was  so  trying.  It 
was  my  privilege  to  be  with  Mr.  Dickson  in  his  last 
hours,  when  he  knew  his  days  were  numbered ;  and 
I  stand  here  to  bear  to  you  living  testimony  of  his 
Christian  faith  throughout  his  last  sufferings.  Dur- 
ing his  life  he  held  responsible  positions  among  his 
fellow-men  —  positions  which  involved  care  and  con- 
stant, absolute  attention.  Yet,  seemingly,  he  put  these 
aside  without  effort,  and  reposed  his  whole  trust  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  manifested  neither  excitement 
nor  alarm,  but  exhibited  a  staid  trust  in  his  Saviour, 
and  in  the  belief  that  the  everlasting  arms  would 
surround  him  when  heart  and  flesh  should  fail.  When 
the  hour  of  trial  came  his  blessed  heritage  of  faith 
was  a  crowning  glory  of  his  useful  life. 

I  am  not  here  to  pronounce  a  eulogy;  and,  re- 
membering the  character  of  the  man,  I  know  that 
such  would  not  be  his  wish.  His  life  is  his  best 
eulogy.  But  it  is  fit  that  this  testimony  of  his  trust 
should  be  given.  His  death  was  the  beautiful  end- 
ing of  a  noble  life.  It  is  hard  to  understand  why  a 
life  so  full  of  all  that  was  good,  so  pure  and  free  from 
that  which  could  detract  from  its  completeness,  should 
be  cut  off  so  soon.  But  it  is  a  grand  solace  to  our 
hearts  to  know  that  Mr.  Dickson  was  able  to  commit 
all  things  to  his  Redeemer.     He  has  left  the  most 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."       121 

precious  heritage  to  his  friends  and  to  the  world,  by 
the  conspicuous  fidelity  with  which  he  has  worked 
out  a  stewardship  through  an  honorable  and  success- 
ful career. 

"  Dr.  Logan  then  gave  the  funeral  address,  which 
was  a  beautiful  tribute  to  Mr.  Dickson's  memory. 
This  address  was  delivered  without  notes,  and  was 
apparently  spontaneous.  There  was  about  it  a  pathos 
born  of  close  friendship  and  intimacy  in  days  gone 
by  which  could  not  be  reproduced  in  print ;  and  there 
were  few  who  listened  unmoved  to  this  beautiful 
eulogy.     Dr.  Logan  spoke  as  follows : 

*  If  I  could  follow  the  feelings  of  my  heart,  I  would 
sit  down  in  silence  to-day  among  the  mourners  of 
this  smitten  household  ;  one  with  them  in  a  sorrow 
which  finds  no  true  expression  in  words.  To  attempt 
to  speak  of  the  excellencies  of  Thomas  Dickson 
seems  to  me  much  like  attempting  to  publish  my 
brother's  virtues,  which  are  the  sacred  home-treas- 
ures of  hearts  that  knew  how  to  love  him.  But  as  I 
look  over  this  multitude,  composed  of  all  classes  and 
callings  of  men,  and  remember  how  my  friend  took 
hold  of  the  hearts  of  all  who  came  in  contact  with 
him,  I  realize  that  we  are  but  a  very  large  family  of 
mourners,  gathered  about  the  fallen  tabernacle  of 
him  who  was  brother  to  us  all.  I  am  called  upon 
simply  to  speak  such  words  as  we  all  would  associate 
with  our  experience  and  remembrance  of  a  useful 
and  happy  life. 


122  Thomas  Dickson. 

*  It  strikes  me  as  an  exceedingly  difficult  thing 
to  form,  or  express,  a  true  and  just  summary  of  Mr. 
Dickson's  characteristics  and  powers.  God  endowed 
him  in  his  creation  with  such  an  excellent  poise  of 
faculties,  and  sent  him  on  his  pilgrimage  of  life  with 
such  a  balance  of  powers,  that  to  the  great  mass 
there  was  nothing  striking  or  peculiar  in  him.  In- 
deed, there  was  no  excellency  so  striking  to  those 
who  knew  him  best  as  this  even  poise  of  traits 
which  constituted  what  we  call  his  character.  He 
always  stood  before  us  a  quiet,  full-orbed  man,  whose 
force  we  could  readily  feel  and  fully  appreciate,  but 
which  we  were  never  able  intelligently  to  explain. 
He  no  doubt  had  weaknesses ;  but  whatever  weak- 
nesses he  had  were  so  hidden  away  or  neutralized 
by  his  natural  endowments  that  they  made  little  im- 
pression upon  the  world  in  which  he  moved.  A  weak 
side  doubtless  he  had,  but  those  who  knew  him 
never  thought  of  seeking  for  it  in  their  approaches. 
He  was  endowed  with  a  clear  and  quick  perception, 
which  enabled  him  to  reach  his  conclusions  with  a 
rapidity  and  clearness  that  seemed  like  intuition  ;  and 
to  announce  his  judgments  with  a  completeness  that 
seldom  needed  a  revision.  With  a  judgment  never 
hasty,  but  ever  controlled  by  a  sense  of  justice  which 
never  seemed  to  be  inactive  in  his  soul ;  with  a  will 
inflexible  to  the  purpose  when  once  the  end  was  clearly 
apprehended;  a  good  natural  persistence — and  a 
wealth  of  resources  seemingly  inexhaustible;  it  is  easy 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."       123 

to  see  that  he  was  born  to  be  a  leader  of  men.  Yet, 
with  it  all,  he  had  such  qualities  of  heart  that  he  never 
seemed  to  fail  in  his  appreciation  of  men  with  whom 
he  either  came  in  contact  or  collision,  in  any  of  the 
various  paths  and  responsibilities  of  his  busy  life. 
His  social  nature  spread  over  all  the  ruggedness  of 
his  character,  a  glow  of  beauty,  and  filled  him  with  a 
fountain  of  joy  and  fun  that  made  him  seem  like  a 
blood-brother  to  all  kinds  of  men.  The  sunshine  of 
his  heart  filled  his  pathway  with  scintillations  of 
wit,  and  grotesque  pictures  of  life,  which  gave  both 
strength  and  elasticity  to  his  steps,  under  the  burden 
of  duties;  while  his  patience  and  persistence  were 
sure,  in  the  long  run,  to  give  him  the  victory. 

'That  which  strikes  us  with  the  greatest  force, 
perhaps,  as  we  look  over  the  long  and  varied  life 
which  has  come  to  its  earthly  period,  is  the  complete 
adaptation  of  our  friend  to  the  varied  positions  and 
circumstances  he  has  occupied.  Indeed,  his  endow- 
ments seem  to  have  made  him  master  of  his  circum- 
stances. Whether  we  look  at  him  when  as  a  boy  he 
struggled  with  adversity  in  the  wilderness,  having 
the  care  of  a  whole  family  on  his  young  shoulders ; 
or  when,  as  a  stripling,  with  the  odds  all  against 
him,  he  searched  for  a  path  of  successful  life  for  him- 
self, we  find  the  same  wealth  of  resources,  the  same 
perseverance  and  vivacity  of  spirit,  which  filled  his 
labors  with  sunshine  and  song.  As  he  arose  step  by 
step  through  the  hard  fields  of  enterprise,  and  occu- 


124  Thomas  Dickson. 

pied  almost  every  station  of  labor  and  trust  which  a 
great  company  could  give,  he  seemed  to  occupy  each 
niche  and  position  so  completely  that  one  might  con- 
clude he  had  been  born  to  it. 

'  He  showed  himself  both  a  leader  of  men  and 
a  master  of  the  forces  he  was  appointed  to  direct; 
whether  as  a  workman  in  the  shop,  or  as  chief  direc- 
tor in  the  chair  of  honor  and  responsibility.  And 
what  was  stranger  than  all  this  was  the  fact  that 
he  seemed  to  be  the  same  Thomas  Dickson,  whom 
men  of  all  classes  and  callings  were  accustomed  to 
call  'Tom,'  in  all  stations  and  positions.  His  life 
was  crowned  with  that  healthfulness  and  honest  suc- 
cess against  which  no  man  complained ;  and  the  ex- 
pressions of  his  brain,  and  of  his  industry,  are  found 
in  most  of  the  grand  enterprises  which  have  made 
this  whole  valley  historic.  What  his  force  was,  as  to 
its  true  measure,  no  man  may  say;  but  the  silent 
power  of  his  Christian  charity  and  benevolence,  as 
well  as  of  his  industry  and  full-rounded  manhood, 
will  be  felt  for  many  a  day  yet  to  come.  His  schemes 
were  laid  in  truthfulness  and  justice,  and  conducted 
with  honesty.  Hence,  their  outwork  and  issues  must 
bless  and  help  mankind. 

'  How  far  such  a  life  as  this  is  shaped  by  the  world, 
and  how  far  its  achievements  are  made  successful 
through  natural  endowments,  and  how  far  determined 
by  education,  it  is  impossible  perhaps  for  us  to  con- 
clude.    Mr.   Dickson's  education   was   found  in  the 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."       125 

school  of  observation  and  experience.  In  an  early 
life  of  poverty  and  struggle,  he  undoubtedly  learned 
the  great  principles  by  which  life  can  be  made  what 
God  intended  it  to  be.  I  love  to  think  of  him  as 
the  son  of  that  old  Scotch  Presbyterian  elder  whose 
theory  of  education  was  housed  in  the  single  sentence,, 
"  Fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments."  I  believe 
there  was  nothing  in  the  life  of  this  man  more  potent 
in  determining  its  issues  than  the  drill  which  he 
received  from  his  parents  in  the  sound  doctrines 
embodied  in  the  Westminster  Catechism.  His  ap- 
preciation of  humanity  made  him  a  friend  of  every 
man,  and  obtained  for  him  the  confidence  of  all 
workers,  whether  they  were  with  him  or  under  him. 
Hence  the  workmen  were  always  his  friends,  and 
believed  in  him  with  unquestioning  confidence. 

1  Illustrations  of  this  confidence  in  him  throughout 
this  valley,  with  whose  industries  he  has  had  so  much 
to  do,  form  an  interesting  part  of  its  history.  I  give 
a  single  instance  out  of  many  which  are  familiar  to 
us  all,  which  will  show  something  of  the  reality  and 
extent  of  this  confidence.  Years  ago  the  laborers 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  valley  had  settled  upon  the 
lands  of  the  company  of  which  Mr.  Dickson  was  an 
employee,  and  were  holding  this  land  by  irregular 
titles.  This  state  of  things  had  continued  for  years. 
At  length  difficulties  arose,  and  lawyers  on  both 
sides  were  puzzling  themselves  uncjer  the  cloud  of 
two  or  three   hundred   lawsuits,  when    the  laborers 


126  Thomas  Dickson. 

took  the  matter  in  their  own  hands  and  came  to  the 
Company  with  the  proposition  that  if  Thomas  Dickson 
would  take  hold  of  the  matter,  with  full  power  to 
act,  they  would  abide  by  his  decision  without  appeal 
or  complaint.  The  proposition  was  accepted  and  the 
settlement  was  made,  and  no  complaint  has  been 
heard  from  that  day  to  this. 

1  What  would  seem  in  other  men  to  be  weaknesses, 
under  his  sense  of  justice,  charity,  and  good-nature 
really  had  the  force  of  virtues.  In  discussing  his 
character  the  other  night  with  a  mutual  friend  who 
knew  him  well,  I  was  assured  that  his  native  stub- 
bornness always  seemed  to  win  for  himself  friends, 
and  never  made  him  permanent  enemies.  Indeed, 
I  think  he  never  lost  a  real  friend.  Whatever  posi- 
tion he  occupied,  he  carried  his  associates  in  his  heart, 
and  ever  seemed  to  bear  them  with  himself  as  he 
outstripped  them  in  the  race  of  life.  The  strains  of 
his  favorite  poet  he  loved  to  repeat,  and  we  have  all 
heard  it,  again  and  again,  as  the  very  music  of  his 
march  in  life: 

"A  man 's  a  man  for  a'  that,  and  a'  that." 

The  humblest  of  his  associates  will  only  learn  by  his 
departure,  how  high  above  them  his  brains  and  his 
energies  raised  him,  and  always  held  him. 

'  He  was  a  man  apparently  without  moods.     He 
seemed  never  to  change.     To  us  he  was  always  the 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."       127 

same.  Whether  we  met  him  in  his  office,  overwhelmed 
with  the  burdens  of  business;  on  the  highways  of 
life  and  of  leisure ;  or  in  the  home  of  his  rest  and 
social  enjoyments,  he  was  always  the  same  genial 
soul.  There  was  no  watching  around  office  doors  to 
find  one's  self  in  season  to  speak  to  the  President 
of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Company.  He  always 
seemed  not  only  accessible,  but  actually  waiting  for 
the  humblest  man  that  had  business  with  him. 

'But  it  was  in  his  Christian  home  that  the  best 
characteristics  of  our  friend  were  manifested.  Sus- 
tained by  a  wife  and  children  who  loved  as  well  as 
honored  him,  he  made  his  home  an  example  which 
men  of  great  schemes  would  do  well  to  imitate.  In 
his  house  was  the  church  of  the  living  God.  It  was 
a  place  where  he  could  not  only  exercise  his  literary 
tastes,  which  were  always  urging  him  to  another  life 
than  that  which  he  lived ;  but  where  his  rollicking, 
fun-loving  nature  found  its  fullest  play,  and  filled 
every  life  about  him  with  its  sunshine.  With  his 
boundless  Christian  hospitality,  he  sanctified  this 
house  to  hundreds  of  us  who  are  gathered  to-day  to 
sympathize  with  its  sorrow.  Not  a  corner  of  it  but 
is  filled  with  mementos,  to  his  wife  and  children,  of 
his  wit  and  his  healthful  home  life. 

1  But  we  are  here  to  bury  our  friend ;  and  the  place 
that  knew  him  shall  know  him  no  more.  We  cannot 
believe  that  such  a  life,  as  this  has  been,  is  to  pass  into 
nothing.     A  poet  has  said,  "An  honest  man  is  the 


128  Thomas  Dickson, 

noblest  work  of  God,"  and  we  will  not  dispute  it ;  but 
a  Christian  man,  sanctified  through  the  experiences 
and  the  duties  of  a  faithful  life,  is  a  revelation  as  well 
as  a  work  of  God.  Indeed  there  is  only  one  work  of 
God  that  has  ever  surpassed  it.  That  is  the  revela- 
tion of  the  God-man  who  is  the  Saviour  of  men.  The 
faithful  Christian,  in  the  lower  sense,  is  "the  Word 
made  flesh,"  to  dwell  and  walk  among  men  ;  and 
every  sanctified  human  life  is  a  power,  under  the 
Divine  administration,  for  the  elevation  and  purifi- 
cation of  the  race.  God  will  see  to  it  that  such  a 
life  as  this,  which  has  passed  from  sight,  shall  sweep 
forward  with  its  living  potency  until  the  very  end 
shall  come.  The  world  will  always  be  the  better  for 
Thomas  Dickson's  having  lived  in  it. 

'  I  once  stood  in  a  valley  of  the  Alps  and  watched 
the  setting  of  the  sun  at  the  close  of  a  beautiful  day. 
Inch  by  inch  the  light  crept  up  the  mountain  side,  as 
the  day  died  down  in  the  valley.  Long  after  the 
deepest  shadows  had  fallen  where  I  stood,  I  saw  the 
golden  sunlight  gilding  the  peaks  with  its  glory. 
There  it  hung  after  night  had  begun,  in  the  valley; 
not  only  a  memento  of  the  day  that  was  already  dead, 
but  a  prophesy  and  harbinger  of  a  new  day  that  was 
to  come.  So  it  strikes  me  now  as  I  stand  by  this 
fallen  brother.  Such  a  life  as  this  has  its  high  sun- 
shine as  well  as  its  night ;  and  as  we  stand  at  the 
meeting-point  of  the  past  and  future,  it  gives  us 
the  fullest  assurance  of  the  coming  day,  as  well  as 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light"       129 

the  precious  remembrance  of  the  day  that  has  closed 
and  gone. 

"  So,  when  a  good  man  dies, 
For  years  beyond  our  ken 
The  light  he  leaves  behind  him  lies 
Upon  the  paths  of  men." 

'  Business  men,  and  brothers !  gathered  here  to- 
day ;  burdened  with  great  schemes,  and  surrounded 
with  innumerable  temptations,  you  must  know  that 
you,  too,  shall  soon  pass  away.  The  places  and  paths 
that  know  you  now  shall  soon  know  you  no  more. 
Let  me  ask  you,  with  a  brother's  earnestness,  to  seek 
for  that  anchorage  of  life  which  is  only  found  by  a 
living  faith  in  an  ever-living  Redeemer.  It  was  the 
permanent  peace  and  sublime  potency  wrought  by 
this  faith  which  made  the  life  of  Thomas  Dickson 
blessed  and  happy  through  his  three-score  years ; 
as  well  as  successful  in  the  stewardship  which  God 
gave  him.  It  was  this  faith  which  made  his  death  so 
peaceful  and  sublime.  Every  man  should  make  a 
true  estimate  of  himself,  first  of  all,  in  laying  out  the 
business  of  his  life ;  and  that  estimate  will  be  found 
more  than  defective  which  makes  no  certain  provision 
for  death,  and  the  eternity  of  the  soul.  Our  own 
Christian  poet  has  said : 

"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 

And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 

Foot-prints  on  the  sands  of  time." 


130  Thomas  Dickson. 

1  But  God  has  told  us  that  he  who  builds  on  this 
Gospel  foundation  which  He  has  laid — this  founda- 
tion of  a  Christian  faith — "  shall  never  be  moved." 
Though  such  a  man  shall  die,  our  Lord  has  said, 
"  Yet  shall  he  live." 

*  All  the  comfort  that  we  can  give  this  household,  in 
our  deepest  sympathy,  can  amount  to  very  little  ;  but 
God  can  comfort  them ;  and  comfort  us,  as  we  go 
from  this  house  of  mourning  to  complete  our  pil- 
grimage of  life.  Let  us,  then,  commend  them  and 
ourselyes  to  this  grace  which  can  never  fail.' 

"  Dr.  Logan  closed  his  address  with  an  earnest 
prayer  for  the  comfort  of  the  family,  and  the  choir 
sang  the  sacred  hymn,  'Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul.'" 

The  body  was  then  borne  away  by  the  associates 
and  co-workers  of  the  dead  brother  and  friend  to  the 
house  appointed  for  all  the  living. 

These  business  associates  and  friends  were:  Messrs. 
A.  H.  Vandling,  J.  E.  Chittenden,  E.  W.  Weston,  C. 
D.  Hamond,  T.  H.  Voorhees,  and  Rolin  Manville,  all 
of  whom  were  connected  with  the  Delaware  and  Hud- 
son Canal  Company.  His  honorable  pall-bearers 
were  Hugh  J.  Jewett,  President  of  the  Erie  Railway, 
F.  S.  Winston,  President  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insur- 
ance Company,  J.  R.  Taylor  and  W.  H.  Tillinghast, 
of  the  Reading  Railroad,  Benjamin  G.  Clark,  of  the 
Lackawanna  Iron  and  Coal  Co.,  Samuel  Sloan,  Presi- 
dent  of  the  Delaware,    Lackawanna   and   Western 


"At  Evening  Time  it  shall  be  Light."       131 

Railroad,  Le  Grand  B.  Cannon,  of  the  Delaware  and 
Hudson,  G.  De  B.  Keim,  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading,  David  Dows,  of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson, 
and  E.  P.  Wilbur,  of  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railways. 
These  honored  and  worthy  gentlemen  walked  beside 
the  hearse  with  silent  meditation,  as  real  mourners 
of  a  fallen  brother. 

The  procession  wound  its  way  to  the  Dunmore 
cemetery  between  rows  of  the  silent  workmen  and 
their  families,  who  stood  with  uncovered  heads,  filling 
both  sides  of  the  street  for  a  full  mile  and  a  half; 
and  many  a  silent  tear  told  of  the  more  than  mere 
respect  for  the  dead  which  had  gathered  the  working- 
people  to  witness  these  funeral  solemnities. 

The  remains  were  conveyed  to  their  last  rest- 
ing-place while  clouds  hung  low  and  threatening ;  and 
the  heavy-hearted  multitude  returned  to  the  city  with 
silent  lips.  But  as  the  mourners  left  the  cemetery  the 
mists  rolled  back,  and  the  sun  burst  from  behind  the 
clouds ;  and  a  beautiful  rainbow  arched  its  prismatic 
colors  above  the  new-made  grave,  which  seemed  but 
an  emblem  and  an  omen  of  the  beautiful  memory  left 
by  the  brilliant  achievements,  and  the  unblemished 
purity,  that  had  marked  the  life,  and  illustrated  the 
career,  of  Thomas  Dickson. 

The  bereaved  widow  and  her  afflicted  children 
had  hardly  gathered,  in  their  sympathy  of  sorrow, 
in  the  deserted  homestead,  which  had  preserved  so 


132  Thomas  Dickson. 

many  precious  remembrances  of  the  departed  father 
and  husband,  when  Testimonials  from  the  outside 
world  began  to  come  to  them,  filled  with  sincere  and 
graceful  assurances  of  appreciation  of  the  excellence 
of  a  departed  friend,  and  of  touching  sympathy  with 
his  sorrowing  family.  These  testimonials  came  from 
churches,  societies,  and  business  corporations  with 
which  Mr.  Dickson  had  been  associated,  and  were 
freighted  with  honest  and  tender  estimates  of  his 
character  and  work.  Many  of  these  testimonials 
were  executed  in  the  richest  style  of  art,  and  contained 
exquisite  manifestations  of  taste.  His  associates  in 
business  and  in  Christian  work  chiseled,  by  these 
parchment  rolls,  and  tastefully-mounted  books  of 
affectionate  testimonial,  the  graceful  monument  for 
Thomas  Dickson's  grave;  and  thus  wove  unfading 
chaplets  for  his  memory.  Their  greatest  excellence 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  their  truth,  and  appro- 
priateness, could  not  be  questioned  by  any  who 
knew  him. 

I  deem  it  entirely  appropriate  to  close  this  brief 
record  of  a  worthy  life ;  this  memorial  of  my  excel- 
lent friend,  with  a  few  of  these  testimonials,  which 
may  be  accepted  as  specimens  of  the  whole,  and 
taken  as  the  expression  of  the  thought  and  honest 
heart-appreciation  of  that  whole  world  in  which  he 
wrought;  and  with  which  he  lived  and  died  in  such 
beautiful  and  profound  sympathy.  No  attempt  is 
made  to  reproduce  the  beautiful  forms  in  which  these 


Testimon  ials.  1 3  3 

testimonials  were  presented.     They  will  be  kept  as 
precious  heir-looms  by  children's  children. 

They  are  as  follows : 


I. 

The  Dickson  Manufacturing  Company. 

Extract  from  the  Minutes  of  a  meeting  of  Directors  and  Stockholders 
of  the  Dickson  Manufacturing  Company,  held  in  Scranton,  Pa., 
August  1st,  1884. 

THE  Directors  and  Stockholders  of  this  Company 
have  learned  with  great  sorrow  of  the  death  of 
our  associate  and  friend, 

Thomas  Dickson, 

and  we  desire  to  indicate  upon  the  minutes  of  this 
Corporation  the  following  estimate  of  his  character 
and  expression  of  our  loss. 

Thomas  Dickson  was  a  man  of  strong  native  tal- 
ent, elevated  tastes,  great  executive  power,  firm  in 
his  convictions  and  principles;  a  man  of  sterling 
honesty,  singleness  of  purpose,  broad  in  his  con- 
ceptions, and  possessed  of  high  courage  and  indom- 
itable will.  As  a  man  of  business  he  was  courteous 
in  his  intercourse  with  all  men ;  successful  in  all  his 
enterprises ;  and  possessed  of  that  frugality,  and  en- 


134  Thomas  Dickson, 

ergy,  which  inspired  all  who  were  associated  with 
him  with  hope  and  confidence. 

As  a  member  of  this  community  we  testify  to  his 
public  spirit,  his  generosity  and  strong  friendship, 
which  have  endeared  him  to  all  who  have  come  in 
contact  with  him,  both  as  employees  and  as  associate 
directors ;  and  have  given  him  a  popularity  in  all  this 
community  that  is  the  sure  indication  of  high  worth. 

His  contributions  to  and  sympathy  with  all  philan- 
thropic enterprises  were  constant  and  well  timed. 

In  all  our  intercourse  with  him  we  have  found  him 
a  man  of  the  strictest  integrity,  and  true  to  his  Chris- 
tian faith  and  profession.  His  warmest  friends  are 
found  as  well  among  the  poor  as  the  rich.  Tears 
fall  easily  at  his  bier.  The  growth  of  this  Com- 
pany, founded  by  him,  and  the  great  business  and 
material  growth  of  Lackawanna  Valley ;  and  of  large 
corporate  enterprises  beyond  this  State,  present  a 
worthy  monument  of  his  character  and  work.  His 
high  success  from  humble  beginnings  against  diffi- 
culties and  obstacles  are  an  honor  to  our  American 
institutions,  showing  that  energy,  merit,  and  true 
ambition  will  meet  their  reward. 

We  mourn  the  loss  of  such  an  associate  and  friend. 

We  sympathize  most  deeply  with  the  partner  of 
his  life  and  with  his  family  in  this  their  sorrow. 

J.  C.  Platt,  George  L.  Dickson, 

Secretary.  Chairman. 


Testimonials.  135 

II. 

The  First  National  Bank  of  Scranton. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  First  National 
Bank  of  Scranton,  held  August  4th,  it  was 
deemed  due  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Dickson,  who 
departed  this  life  on  the  evening  of  July  31st,  1884, 
to  adopt  and  place  upon  record  the  following  minute : 

Thomas  Dickson  was  one  of  the  original  corpora- 
tors of  this  bank,  and,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  one 
of  its  most  honored  and  trusted  directors. 

His  conservative  views  and  his  wise  foresight  have, 
in  all  our  intercourse  with  him,  impressed  upon  us 
the  conviction  that  he  was  ever  a  wise  counselor  and 
strong  executive  officer. 

His  deep  interest  in  this  institution,  and  his  coopera- 
tion in  all  measures  in  its  behalf,  will  ever  be  a  pleas- 
ant recollection  to  us. 

His  constant  success  in  all  undertakings,  and  his 
unbounded  integrity,  have  brought  to  us  that  hope 
and  confidence  which  is  the  life  and  support  of  business. 

In  times  of  financial  depression  his  wisdom  and 
courage  never  failed;  in  times  of  prosperity  he  was 
never  carried  beyond  the  line  of  prudence  and  safety. 

We  feel  deeply  the  loss  of  his  presence  in  our 
councils. 

The  influence  of  a  man  of  such  strength,  as  he  pos- 


136  Thomas  Dickson, 

sessed,  will  long  be  felt  in  the  business  interests  of 
this  community.  It  is  through  such  men  that  institu- 
tions are  made  stable. 

We  bear  to  his  afflicted  family  our  deepest  sympathy 
in  their  trials ;  and  direct  that  a  copy  of  this  minute, 
signed  by  the  President,  and  attested  by  the  secretary, 
be  presented  to  them. 

Attest:  J.  A.  Linen,         Joseph  J.  Albright, 

Secretary.  President 


III. 

The  Moosic  Powder  Company. 

AT  a  special  meeting  of  the  Directors  of  the  Moo- 
sic Powder  Company  at  their  office  in  Scranton, 
Pa.,  at  8  o'clock,  p.  m.,  August  4th,  1884,  to  take 
action  commemorative  of  the  death  of  Thomas  Dick- 
son, one  of  the  founders  of  the  Company  ;  for  many 
years  an  active  director  in  its  management ;  and  al- 
ways its  earnest  friend  and  wise  counselor,  H.  S. 
Pierce  was  made  Chairman  and  E.  W.  Weston 
Secretary. 

It  was  Resolved,  That,  while  bowing  in  submission 
and  sorrow  to  that  dispensation  of  an  overruling 
and  all-wise  Providence,  which  removed  from  us  by 
death,  on  the  evening  of  July  31st,  1884,  our  friend 
and  associate,  Thomas  Dickson  ;  we,  as  a  body,  de- 


Testimonials.  137 

sire  hereby  to  place  on  record  our  high  appreciation 
and  esteem  of  him  as  an  associate,  and  a  man,  and 
our  grief  at  his  loss ;  and  to  bear  tribute  to  his  mem- 
ory, which  shall  ever  be  cherished  by  us,  and  held 
dear  and  sacred. 

Thomas  Dickson  was  a  man  whom  to  know  was 
to  love ;  with  whom  to  be  associated  was  to  honor 
and  respect ;  a  man  of  noble  and  generous  impulses, 
whose  aim  was  ever  to  promote  the  welfare  and  hap- 
piness of  his  fellow-men ;  always  ready  to  lend  a 
listening  ear,  to  give  a  helping  hand,  an  encouraging 
word,  and  a  sympathizing  heart,  to  the  worthy. 

He  was  a  man,  foremost  in  every  good  work,  "  given 
to  hospitality,"  "diligent  in  business,  fervent  in  spirit, 
serving  the  Lord."  Of  quick  perception,  of  remark- 
able clearness  and  grasp  of  mind ;  of  sound  and  un- 
biased judgment ;  he  was  always  a  trustworthy  friend 
and  adviser.  A  man  of  high  social  qualifications  and 
attainments,  courteous,  unselfish,  and  affable  in  his 
nature  and  in  all  intercourse  with  those  with  whom 
he  was  brought  in  contact ;  of  strict  integrity,  hon- 
orable, and  above  suspicion  in  all  his  dealings.  Firm 
and  decided  in  his  convictions ;  confident  and  cour- 
ageous in  his  undertakings ;  he  was  fearless  and  un- 
hesitating in  the  discharge  of  every  duty. 

We  mourn  his  loss  to  us,  to  this  community,  and 
to  the  world,  as  creating  a  void  that  cannot  be  filled. 

To  his  bereaved  wife  and  afflicted  family  we  give 
assurance  of  our  heartfelt  sympathy  in  this  dark  hour 


138  Thomas  Dickson. 

of  grief  and  sorrow,  and  pray  that  Heaven's  choicest 
blessings  may  rest  upon  and  attend  them. 

A  copy  of  this  resolution  shall  be  presented  to  the 
family  and  entered  on  the  minutes. 

E.  W.  Weston,  '     H.  S.  Pierce, 

Secretary.  Chairman. 

IV. 
The  Crown  Point  Iron  Company. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Crown  Point  Iron  Company,  held  at  their  office 
in  New  York  Nov.  25th,  1884,  the  following  was 
ordered  placed  upon  the  minutes: 

It  is  with  the  deepest  sorrow  that  we  record  upon 
our  minutes  the  death  of  our  friend  and  co- Director, 
Thomas  Dickson,  Esq.  He  was  one  of  the  corpora- 
tors of  this  Company,  and  was  ever  most  warmly  in- 
terested in  its  success. 

Faithful  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty,  and  guided 
by  a  sound  judgment,  we  mourn  his  death  as  an  hon- 
ored friend,  as  well  as  a  valued  adviser. 

His  memory  will  be  cherished  by  us  with  deep 
regret  for  his  departure,  and  ever-affectionate  regard ; 
and  we  desire  to  extend  to  his  family  the  warmest  ex- 
pression of  our  sympathy  in  their  great  bereavement. 

L.  G.  B.  Cannon, 

President. 

New- York,  Dec.  8th,  1884. 


Testimonials.  139 

V. 

Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company. 

AT  a  special  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Managers 
of  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company, 
held  at  the  office  of  the  Company  on  Saturday,  August 
2d,  1884,  to  take  action  in  regard  to  the  death  of  their 
late  president,  Mr.  Thomas  Dickson,  the  following 
preamble  and  resolutions  were  adopted : 

With  unfeigned  sorrow  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company  record 
upon  their  minutes  the  following  tribute  of  their 
respect  for  the  memory  of  their  friend  and  associate, 

Thomas  Dickson, 

who  departed  this  life  on  the  31st  of  July,  1884. 

He  was  born  in  the  year  when  action  was  taken 
for  the  formation  of  this  Company,  and  he  was  in  its 
service  from  his  youth. 

He  became  its  Superintendent  in  i860;  in  1867  he 
was  appointed  Vice-President;  in  1869  he  was  elected 
President,  and  filled  that  office  until  the  time  of  his 
death.  His  life  was  thus  identified  with  the  Com- 
pany's progress.  With  every  detail  in  its  working  that 
life  was  wrought  out,  and  it  unfolded  with  every  step 
in  its  development.  His  advancement  was  in  its  pros- 
perity, and  its  reverses  came  home  to  him  with  perhaps 


14°  Thomas  Dickson. 

more  of  nearness  than  any  personal  loss.  Such  unity 
of  interest  with  the  institution  to  whose  service  he 
was  devoted  marked  him  out  as  the  man  to  whom 
the  highest  office  in  its  gift  would  necessarily  fall. 

Being  invested  with  it,  he  adorned  his  Presidency 
by  bringing  to  bear  upon  its  duties  the  whole  weight 
of  a  rare  condition  of  mental  and  moral  endowments. 
With  all  the  cordiality  and  loyalty  of  his  nature,  he 
carried  out  the  broad  policy  of  development  which 
had  marked  the  administration  of  his  predecessor  in 
the  office,  and  with  which  he  had  always  been  in  gen- 
erous sympathy.  To  insure  the  success  of  his  noble 
work,  he  was  furnished  with  an  intellectual  strength, 
a  faculty  of  rapid  and  accurate  judgment,  a  power  to 
grasp  and  arrange  multifarious  details,  and  an  intui- 
tive knowledge  of  men,  which,  together  with  his  im- 
mense power  of  will,  communicated  a  unity  and  a 
momentum  to  his  endeavors  that  compelled  universal 
respect. 

In  the  discharge  of  his  official  duties  he  showed  a 
calm  reserve  and  a  clearly-defined  high  purpose  of 
well-doing,  which  betokened  the  real  greatness  of  his 
character;  while  in  his  personal  relations,  as  their 
chief,  with  his  fellow-servants  of  the  Company  of  every 
grade,  he  won  their  admiration  by  the  quiet  amenity 
and  noble  consistency  of  his  life. 

Perhaps  no  exhibition  of  his  great  power  to  influ- 
ence others  was  more  marked — certainly  none  was 
more  honorable  —  than  that  which  was  brought  out 


Testimonials,  141 

on  occasions  of  controversy  with  other  Companies. 
In  the  composition  of  these  his  breadth  of  view  in 
suggestions  of  policy,  his  judicial  moderation  in  pre- 
senting the  claims  which  he  represented,  and  his 
manifest  anxiety  to  reconcile  the  interests  of  all,  upon 
a  foundation  of  justice  to  all,  led  many,  who  have 
admired  his  course,  to  regard  him  as  the  peace- 
maker among  his  fellows;  and  in  the  limited  time 
since  his  death  more  than  one  of  these  companies 
have  referred  to  this  trait  of  his  character.  But 
in  all  the  relations  of  life,  private  as  well  as  official, 
he  was  the  same  highly-esteemed,  respected,  hon- 
ored, and  beloved  man.  And  while,  in  the  expression 
of  our  sorrow,  we  spread  upon  these  records  our 
testimonial  of  regard  for  our  departed  friend,  we 
are  reminded  of  the  weightier  burden  of  grief  of 
those  whose  relations  of  love  and  kindred  bring 
home  to  them  a  greater  poignancy  of  suffering.  Be 
it  therefore 

Resolved,  I.  That  the  Board  of  Managers  of  this 
Company  tender  to  the  family  of  Mr.  Dickson  the 
assurance  of  their  deepest  sympathy  in  a  bereave- 
ment which  will  be  felt  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
home  where  he  was  so  tenderly  beloved. 

Resolved,  II.  That  this  Board  will  attend  the 
funeral  of  Mr.  Dickson  on  the  4th   inst.,  and  will 


142  Thomas  Dickson. 

direct  the  various  offices  of  the  Company  to  be  closed 
on  that  day. 

Resolved,  III.  That  the  foregoing  minute  be  adopt- 
ed and  spread  upon  the  records,  and  that  an  en- 
grossed copy  thereof  be  transmitted  to  the  family 
of  Mr.  Dickson. 

F.  M.  Olyphant, 

Secretary. 


VI. 

Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company. 

AT  a  special  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
The  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  of  New 
York,  held  August  1st,  1884,  the  president  addressed 
the  Board  as  follows: 

Gentlemen:  I  announce,  with  sincere  regret,  the 
death  of  another  Trustee  of  this  Company  — 

Thomas  Dickson. 

He  died  at  Morristown,  N.  J.,  last  evening,  July 
31st,  of  disease  of  the  heart. 

He  was  born  in  Berwickshire,  Scotland,  and  at  his 
death  was  sixty  years  of  age. 

Mr.  Dickson  was  elected  a  Trustee  of  this  Company 
November  19th,  1873,  and  has  served,  most  intelli- 


Testimon  ials.  143 

gently  and  acceptably,  as  a  member  of  the  committees 
on  Insurance  Agencies,  Mortuary  Claims,  and  Nomi- 
nations. Each  of  these  committees  will  miss  his  dig- 
nified and  courteous  presence,  his  practical  knowl- 
edge and  sound  judgment,  in  their  deliberations  and 
acts.  The  executive  officers  will  miss  his  kind  interest, 
and  wise  counsels,  in  the  affairs  of  the  Company ;  and 
not  less  his  personal  sympathy  and  friendship.  Other 
members  of  the  Board,  who  have  been  associated  with 
him,  here  and  elsewhere,  and  knew  and  appreciated 
his  sterling  character  and  worth,  will  now  address 
you ;  and  will  furnish  a  more  fitting  testimonial  of  the 
appreciation  of  this  Board  for  our  late  Trustee,  and 
their  sincere  sympathy  for  his  family  in  their  great 
affliction. 


Hon.  John  E.  Develin  said : 

Mr.  President:  The  heavy  affliction  which  has 
fallen  upon  us  almost  deprives  me  of  the  ability  to 
speak  in  regard  to  it.  Mr.  Dickson  rose  from  the 
ranks  by  a  wonderful  mental  power — a  gift  from 
above.  By  great  industry,  integrity,  and  honesty,  he 
elevated  himself  to  one  of  the  most  prominent  and 
influential  positions  in  the  country.  After  he  became 
a  member  of  this  Board,  his  activity,  his  attention  to 
its  affairs,  and  his  conscientious  discharge  of  his 
duty  were  marked  by  all  his  associates. 

His  loss  to  the  Company  is  a  great  one. 


144  Thomas  Dickson. 

Mr.  Sewell  read  the  following  resolutions  and  moved 
their  adoption : 

Whereasy  It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  in  his  Provi- 
dence to  remove  from  his  earthly  sphere  our  late 
fellow-member  of  this  Board  of  Trustees, 

Thomas  Dickson, 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  this  Board  have  heard  the  sad 
intelligence  with  deep  regret,  and  that  we  avail  our- 
selves of  the  earliest  opportunity  to  make  an  expres- 
sion of  our  sorrow. 

Our  deceased  friend  was  a  man  of  ripe  experience, 
sound  judgment,  positive  convictions,  and  decisive 
will,  while  his  honesty  and  integrity  were  above  the 
shadow  of  suspicion.  In  every  position  where  his 
good  sense,  business  experience,  and  unquestioned 
integrity,  had  placed  him  (and  these  qualities  made 
him  sought  after  by  many),  he  discharged  the  duties 
intrusted  to  him  with  diligence,  prudence,  careful 
attention  to  all  the  necessary  details,  and  a  sagacity 
which  was  the  result  of  his  training  and  his  long 
identification  with  large  business  interests.  Whether 
as  the  executive  head  of  a  great  Railroad,  Canal  and 
Coal  Company,  a  Trustee  of  this  Corporation,  or  a 
simple  citizen  of  the  Republic,  he  was  ever  solicitous 
to  discharge  his  duties  with  zeal,  intelligence,  and  a 
conscientious  regard  for  the  rights  of  all  persons  who 
might  in  any  way  be  interested  in  the  trusts  over 


Testimonials.  1 4  5 

which  he  was  called  upon  to  preside.  In  this  Board, 
as  a  member  of  it,  and  of  several  of  its  important 
committees,  his  loss  will  be  deeply  felt,  and  is  feelingly- 
deplored.  But  while  we  sorrow  over  his  bier  we  per- 
mit ourselves  to  take  pardonable  pride  in  the  record 
of  his  pure  life,  of  his  duties  fulfilled,  and  of  his  work 
completed;  while  we  sincerely  desire  to  join  with 
our  deceased  brother  in  the  good  hope  which  he  en- 
joyed of  a  glorious  immortality. 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  inscribed  on  the 
minutes,  and  copies  thereof  be  sent  to  the  family  of 
the  deceased  gentleman. 

This  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  George  S.  Coe, 
by  Mr.  Julian  T.  Davies,  and  by  Mr.  Frederic  Crom- 
well. 


Mr.  Coe  said : 

Mr.  Chairman:  The  circumstances  of  this  day 
remind  me  very  strongly  of  the  position  in  which  we 
all  stand.  Mr.  Dickson  was  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Mortuary  Claims,  of  which  I  am  also  a 
member.  The  duties  of  that  committee  vividly 
bring  before  us  the  fact  that  we  stand,  as  it  were, 
upon  the  confines  of  two  worlds.  If  we  are  not  re- 
minded by  our  official  duties  in  connection  with  that 
committee  of  our   own  mortality,   we  are  certainly 


146  Thomas  Dickson. 

impressed  by  the  dropping  away  of  our  associates 
in  such  numbers.  Mr.  Dickson,  as  a  member  of  this 
committee,  was  very  attentive,  very  kind,  and  every- 
thing he  did  was  always  most  acceptable.  He  dis- 
charged his  duties  with  great  intelligence  and  great 
wisdom,  and  we  most  sincerely  regret  to  lose  him. 
I  can  only  add  that  I  heartily  concur  in  everything 
that  has  been  said,  and  I  join  all  the  members  here 
in  sincere  regret  at  his  death. 

Mr.  Davies  said : 

Mr.  President :  I  had  not  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Dickson,  but  I  had  marked  his  presence  at 
this  Board.  The  intercourse  that  I  had  with  him  in 
connection  with  the  performance  of  duties,  as  Trustees 
of  this  Company,  was  principally  in  the  examination 
of  the  securities  of  the  Company.  I  remember  being 
very  much  struck  by  the  care,  and  accuracy,  he  dis- 
played, and  the  fidelity  with  which  this  gentleman, 
who  presided  over  public  enterprises  of  vast  impor- 
tance ;  who  was  President  of  one  of  the  greatest 
companies  connected  with  the  coal  interest  of  this 
country ;  and  whose  private  interests  were  so  large, 
attended,  day  after  day,  and  hour  after  hour,  with 
his  own  hands  counting  securities ;  examining  their 
denominations,  and  going  through  all  the  minute 
details  of  a  careful,  personal  examination  of  the 
assets  of  this  Company.     And  it  seemed  to  me  as  if, 


Testimonials.  147 

in  the  care  with  which  he  performed  the  details  of 
these  duties,  was  to  be  found  the  secret  of  Mr.  Dick- 
son's success  in  life.  Every  duty,  doubtless,  that 
came  to  his  hand,  whether  great  or  small,  was 
performed  with  equal  fidelity.  In  manner  he  was 
courteous  and  considerate.  For  all  of  us  he  had  a 
pleasant  greeting ;  and  even  a  slight  acquaintance 
with  him  could  not  fail  to  leave  upon  the  mind  a 
pleasant  and  enduring  impression.  We  have  lost 
from  this  Board  one  of  its  most  valued  members ;  a 
man  whose  place  it  will  be  very  hard  to  fill. 

Among  the  gravest  acts  that  fall  upon  this  body, 
and  upon  the  more  experienced  members  of  it,  is  the 
filling  of  the  places  of  these  really  great  men  who 
have  passed  away.  Certainly,  one  of  the  greatest 
minds  that  I  have  known  in  this  Board  left  us  on  the 
death  of  Mr.  Dickson. 

Mr.  Olyphant  said : 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen:  It  seems  hardly 
necessary  to  say  more  than  has  been  said ;  but  I  have 
known  Mr.  Dickson  as  a  friend  from  my  early  boy- 
hood, and  my  feelings  prompt  me  to  add  a  few  words. 
A  good  man  has  passed  away.  Wherever  Mr.  Dick- 
son's lot  was  cast  he  had  the  respect  of  the  commu- 
nity around  him,  while  those  who  were  allowed  to 
come  into  the  nearer  relations  of  friendship,  came  to 
love  as  well  as  to  respect  him.     His  calm  yet  vigor- 


148  Thomas  Dickson. 

ous  intellect  was  given  with  untiring  devotion  to  the 
company  over  which  he  presided ;  yet  we  know  here 
how  unselfishly  he  gave  his  time,  and  the  remains  of 
strength,  to  help  forward  the  prosperity  of  this  great 
corporation.  Whatever  he  did  he  desired  to  do  well ; 
for  his  estimate  of  duty  was  very  exacting.  His  last 
sickness  came  upon  him  suddenly.  Rest  was  needed, 
but  the  man  hitherto  strong  and  active  could  not  be 
convinced  of  this  necessity.  He  pressed  on,  prefer- 
ring, as  it  seemed,  to  die  in  harness  rather  than  to 
rust  out.  In  his  home,  surrounded  by  all  that  was 
attractive,  and  deeply  mourned  as  husband,  father, 
brother,  friend,  he  passed  away.  We  cannot  lift  the 
veil  from  the  mystery  of  such  a  Providence.  We 
must  leave  it  where  our  friend  left  it,  and  trust  that 
when  our  time  comes  to  follow  him  we  may  be  able 
to  say,  and  feel,  as  he  said,  just  before  he  passed 
away — his  last  words — "  It  is  all  right." 

The  resolutions  were  thereupon  adopted. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Develin,  the  President  was  au- 
thorized to  select  a  delegation  to  attend  the  funeral, 
at  Scranton,  on  Monday,  the  4th  instant. 

Mr.  Andrews,  who  was  in  Canada  when  he  heard 
of  Mr.  Dickson's  death,  telegraphed  the  following  as 
his  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased : 

Mr.  Dickson's  mental  qualities  were  singularly  well 
poised.     Possessing  ability  of  the  highest  order,  it 


Testimonials,  149 

was  sweetly  tempered  by  modesty.  Quick  in  reach- 
ing conclusions,  he  was  never  rash.  A  rigid  disci- 
plinarian, he  avoided  harshness  in  reproof.  Earnest 
in  expression,  he  was  considerate  of  the  feelings  of 
those  from  whom  he  differed.  Deeply  religious,  he 
shunned  the  appearance  of  austerity.  Trained  in  a 
school  where  self-assertion  was  a  merit,  he  never 
lost  the  quality  of  diffidence.  Indeed,  in  all  the  attri- 
butes of  his  mind  he  approached  in  a  marvelous  de- 
gree to  the  ideal  of  that  rarest  of  characters — 

A  Christian  Gentleman. 


At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
the  President  made  the  following  report,  viz. : 

To  fulfill  the  duty  you  laid  upon  me,  to  aid  in  pay- 
ing the  last  rites  of  sympathy  and  respect  to  our  late 
associate  and  friend  Thomas  Dickson,  I  attended  his 
funeral  at  the  city  of  Scranton,  with  Mr.  Holden, 
Mr.  Olyphant,  and  Mr.  Henderson  of  our  Board  of 
Trustees,  on  Monday,  August  4th.  The  family  resi- 
dence was  filled  with  Mr.  Dickson's  personal  friends 
and  neighbors,  while  a  much  larger  number  of  them, 
who  could  not  find  room,  remained  at  the  entrance 
and  in  the  streets  near  the  house  until  the  services 
were  ended. 

The  cemetery  was  two  miles  distant.  As  the  long 
funeral  procession  wound  its  way  through  the  valleys, 
over  the  hills,  and  past  the  open  shafts  leading  to  the 


150  Thomas  Dickson. 

mines  beneath  them,  the  busy  scenes  of  our  friend's 
early  life  and  labors,  and  of  his  subsequent  history, 
were  spread  out  before  us.  On  the  roadside,  at  short 
intervals,  stood  large  crowds  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  from  the  various  workshops  and  mines,  with 
uncovered  heads,  watching  with  sad,  sympathetic 
eyes,  the  remains  of  their  cherished  friend  passing  to 
their  last  resting-place.  No  funeral  pomp  or  studied 
eulogy  could  so  eloquently,  and  touchingly  assure  us 
of  the  place  he  filled  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the 
people,  as  the  mute  sorrow  expressed  in  every  coun- 
tenance ;  as  the  multitude  watched  this  procession  on 
its  way  to  bury  their  friend  out  of  their  sight.  From 
the  entrance  at  the  cemetery  to  the  open  grave,  the 
path,  and  the  ground  around  it  were  covered  with 
evergreens  and  flowers,  on  which  his  chosen  friends, 
who  had  borne  his  body  to  its  last  earthly  home, 
placed  the  coffin.  Then,  as  they  reverently  depos- 
ited the  body  in  its  narrow  resting-place,  they  sung 
with  sweet  melody  these  touching  words : 


"  Unveil  thy  bosom,  faithful  tomb, 

Take  this  new  treasure  to  thy  trust ; 
And  give  these  sacred  relics  room 
To  seek  a  slumber  in  the  dust. 

Nor  pain,  nor  grief,  nor  anxious  fear 
Invade  thy  bounds — no  mortal  woes 

Can  reach  the  peaceful  sleeper  here, 
While  angels  watch  the  soft  repose. 


Testimonials.  151 

So  Jesus  slept  —  God's  dying  Son 

Pass'd  thro'  the  grave  and  blest  the  bed : 

Rest  here,  blest  saint,  till  from  his  throne 
The  morning  breaks  to  pierce  the  shades. 

Break  from  his  throne,  illustrious  morn  : 
Attend,  O  Earth !  his  sovereign  word ; 

Restore  thy  trust — a  glorious  form 
Called  to  ascend  and  meet  the  Lord." 


And  so  we  committed  his  body  to  the  ground, 
"earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust,"  in  full 
hope  of  that  day  when  this  body  shall  be  changed 
and  made  like  to  "  His  glorious  body,"  who  burst  the 
bonds  of  death,  and  brought  "life  and  immortality  to 
light,"  for  all  those  who  believe  in  Him. 

It  seems  strange  to  us  to  see  a  man  of  wisdom  and 
strength,  of  purity  and  power,  while  intently  and  with 
his  whole  heart  fulfilling,  to  the  utmost,  his  wide  and 
weighty  duties  to  his  God,  and  his  fellow-man,  thus 
stricken  down  in  the  meridian  of  his  life  and  labors; 
with  so  much  to  do,  and  so  much  undone.  So  he 
once  thought,  till  he  received  his  death-bed  lesson 
of  filial  trust  in  his  Heavenly  Father ;  then  he  had 
faith  to  exclaim,  in  these  his  last  words  while  in  the 
agonies  of  dissolution,  "It  is  all  right,"  and  thus 
passed  to  his  eternal  rest. 

An  extract  from  the  minutes. 

(Signed)  Richard  A.    McCurdy, 

Vice-President  and  Ex-Officio  Secretary  to  the  Board. 


CLOSING    WORDS. 


THE  mystery  of  human  life  is  never  more  impress- 
ive than  when  we  pause  to  consider  the  void, 
and  the  adjustment  of  forces,  which  its  earthly  com- 
pletion has  demanded.  There  is,  first,  a  solemn  halt 
in  the  tread  of  toil,  when  a  great  worker  falls,  then  a 
walking  softly  for  a  time,  as  if  the  listeners  had  learned 
the  cause  of  the  shock,  and  then  follows  a  passing  on 
in  solemn  meditation  to  complete  the  work  required. 
There  is  hardly  visible  the  turning  of  a  hair's  breadth 
in  the  trend  of  the  world's  life,  or  in  the  march  of  men, 
by  the  fall  of  the  greatest  of  men.  The  business  world 
moves  on  as  if  little  dependent  upon  the  individuals 
that  determine  its  control ;  and  we  wonder  at  it.  But 
there  can,  perhaps,  be  no  more  forceful  testimony 
given  to  the  completeness  of  the  earthly  life,  or  the 
faithfulness  of  the  stewardship,  of  any  marked  worker 


152 


Closing  Words.  153 

in  business  schemes  than  the  leaving  of  all  trusts 
without  shock  or  derangement.  The  levers  and  pul- 
leys, the  cogs  and  springs,  of  the  great  machine  must 
have  been  both  accurately  and  wisely  adjusted,  if  they 
run  on,  without  friction,  after  the  master-hand  that 
invented,  and  ever  controlled,  them  has  been  suddenly 
removed.  Such  is  the  testimony  which  was  given 
to  the  completeness  of  the  earthly  stewardship  of 
Thomas  Dickson.  The  diameters  of  his  power,  and 
the  circles  of  his  varied  influence  were  so  wide,  and 
decided,  that  the  business  world  wondered  what 
might  be  the  result  of  the  surrender  of  his  trusts  and 
of  his  departure  from  the  world.  But  it  was  found 
that  the  master-mind  had  so  wisely  adjusted  his 
machinery,  and  balanced  his  industries,  and  had  so 
faithfully  wrought  out  his  designs,  that  little  remained 
unfinished.  His  offices  and  his  beautiful  homes  were 
left  as  types  of  his  life,  as  well  as  of  his  completed  task. 
From  foundation  to  cap-stone  every  part  was  in  its 
place ;  all  things  finished  and  furnished  to  their  ends  ; 
henceforth  subject  simply  to  the  wear  and  tear  of 
time.  His  chapter  in  the  world's  life  and  history, 
whether  adjudged  long  or  short,  great  or  small,  was 
completed  ;  and  henceforth  must  stand,  in  the  memory 
of  his  associates,  in  its  striking  symmetry  and  mani- 
fold excellence. 

So  complete  was  his  life  that  the  social  circle  of 
which  he  was  the  center,  and  the  household  of  which 
he  was  the  life,  moved  on  along  the  lines  of  his  ap- 


154  Thomas  Dickson. 

pointment,  hardly  realizing  his  departure.  His  quiet, 
masterly  spirit,  his  modest  gentleness  of  dignity, 
his  genial  sunshine  and  sparkling  humor,  lingered  so 
vividly  in  all  the  paths  of  his  work,  and  his  resting, 
that  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  intimate  friends 
walked  on  as  if  still  in  his  company,  ever  and  anon  to 
be  startled  with  the  fact  that  comes  with  its  benumb- 
ing force  to  assure  them  that  he  has  entirely  out- 
stripped them,  and  now  walks  in  a  sphere  higher  than 
human  vision  can  reach.  He  has  passed  through  and 
beyond  the  shadows  to  the  cloudless  morning,  leaving 
the  last  echo  of  his  voice,  "It  is  all  right,"  to  cheer 
and  strengthen  our  faith  with  the  signal  as  from  the 
other  shore. 

But  he  has  also  left  the  marks  of  his  genius,  and 
character,  in  all  the  paths  of  his  pilgrimage  ;  deeply 
carved  on  all  his  great  and  beneficent  works ;  and 
with  these  would  he  draw  us  onward,  and  ever  up- 
ward, to  the  gladness  of  the  coming  meeting. 

For  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of  deepening  these 
marks,  and  clearing  them  of  the  mosses  that  time 
weaves  to  cover  and  deface  them  —  after  the  manner 
of  Old  Mortality,  who  chiseled  anew  the  tomb  in- 
scriptions of  the  Scotch  Martyrs  —  has  this  Tablet 
been  written.  In  the  awkward  scratches  and  mani- 
fest imperfections  may  be  readily  discerned  the  inex- 
pert and  uncertain  hand  of  the  artist;  but  these  must 
be  ignored  by  all  who  would  see  the  excellence,  and 
feel  the  force,  of  the  original  inscriptions.    Whatever 


.'.•• 

*»»• 


*    > 

•  •  »  » 

•  •  a  » 


Closing  Words.  155 

may  be  the  defects  that  mar  the  tablet,  they  can 
hardly  obscure,  if  they  do  not  actually  reveal,  the  sin- 
cerity and  affectionate  aim  of  the  rude  chisel.  This 
whole  Household  Tablet  has  been  wrought  under  the 
solemn  conviction  that  such  a  many-sided  man  —  such 
a  husband,  father,  and  friend — deserves  to  be  held 
in  perpetual  remembrance.  May  the  shadow  of  his 
excellence  ever  fall  upon  his  children's  children  as  the 
benediction  of  the  blessed. 


M1688S0 


Ity-LL 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


Ifei«ii 


